Each anchor store changed names twice during the original mall's history: Shillito's became Shillito-Rikes and then Lazarus, Mabley & Carew became Elder-Beerman and then Parisian, while Gold Circle became Hills and then Kmart.

Developer Carl H. Lindner and his brother Robert D. Lindner announced that the mall's anchor stores would be two local department stores: John Shillito Company (Shillito's) and Mabley & Carew, with over 600,000 square feet (56,000 m2) of retail space occupying 50 acres (20 ha).

Baxter, Hodell, Donnelly & Preston was hired as the architectural firm to design the Mabley & Carew store.

By this point, several tenants had been confirmed for the mall, including Lerner New York (now known as New York & Company), Waldenbooks, Kinney Shoes, F. W. Woolworth Company, Florsheim Shoes, Casual Corner, Swiss Colony, 5-7-9, along with Thriftway Supermarket and SupeRx Drugs.

[10] Many of these changes were instigated by MetLife, which had acquired the mall from Prudential in 1987,[4] and sought to target more white-collar worker demographics by bringing in more fashion-oriented tenants.

[16] MetLife auctioned Beechmont and nine other malls under its ownership in 1997,[16] and Zamias Services, Inc. bought all ten that December.

As a result, Zamias sought renovation plans, with proposals including a multiplex movie theater[15] Parisian closed at the mall in late 1999 due to declining sales.

Delays in redevelopment, combined with the expiration of tenant leases, contributed to an increasingly high vacancy rate at the beginning of the 21st century; by 2001, The Cincinnati Enquirer described the mall as a "ghost town" with "a handful of smaller stores" alongside Lazarus and Kmart.

[20] Victory Real Estate of Columbus, Georgia was announced as a potential buyer in November of that year.

[21] After buying the property, Victory Real Estate renamed it to Anderson Towne Center and announced that they would begin converting it to an outdoor mall.

These plans called for the demolition of everything except for the Kmart and Lazarus buildings, along with the addition of exterior-facing retail suites and new locations for TGI Friday's and CVS Pharmacy, two of the only remaining tenants at the time.