 These strained relationships have slowed regional progress and eroded business confidence, hampering economic development in the region to the present day.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, numerous remaining retail merchants, including Thalhimers, JC Penney, and Sears Roebuck, left older shopping areas in Petersburg for the new Southpark Mall that opened in 1989 in adjacent, and predominately white, Colonial Heights.A Miller & Rhoads store in Petersburg closed when the department store chain went out of business in 1990.