Current market prices for retail real estate demonstrate two rings of commercial sprawl have surrounded Winston-Salem's lethargic urban core. Where it started The first ring of retail sprawl emerged in the 1960s and '70s, starting with Peters Creek Parkway to the south, then Silas Creek Parkway, which winds around to North Point Boulevard. Many malls in the inner ring were once hot places to shop but went cold in the past 10 to 20 years. When Leverton opened Parkway Plaza in 1960, it was a vogue regional shopping center and a formidable rival to Thruway, with such tenants as Dewey's Bakery, Cahill and Swain, and Woolworth. The city's first two shopping malls took starkly different paths.
Vacancies are rare.
Meantime, almost a fifth of Parkway Plaza's space is vacant, said Gerald Chase, the property manager with Equity Investment Group in Atlanta. Clapp believes that Thruway and Parkway Plaza demonstrate how resilient shopping centers can be. Businesses continue to leave the southside sprawl ring. Food Lion is leaving West Salem shopping center, and Shoppers Paradise left its Silas Creek Parkway site. That might also explain why Peters Creek and Silas Creek malls have lost their original luster, and Thruway still thrives.