The center consists of both an indoor mall and exterior outlying stores and occupies over 105 acres split between the municipalities of Paramus and Maywood.

The mall has over the years included community spaces, including a chapel, theater for live dramas, post office, auditorium, ice rink,[4] bowling alley, a children's amusement ride area, and the Bergen Museum of Art & Science.

[6] The mall opened on November 14, 1957 with great fanfare, as Dave Garroway, host of The Today Show served as master of ceremonies.

[8] In July 1972, the owners of the Bergen Mall announced that they would begin converting the facility from an outdoor shopping plaza with a vast number of stores to an enclosed structure with all of these stores operating under one roof; the new mall would be anchored by Stern's at one end of the enclosed structure and Ohrbach's at the other.

[11] Unlike its other regional counterparts, however, the Bergen Mall did not make attempts to modernize its look as the years wore on and proceeded to look dated.

[14] It closed in November 2010 due to the redevelopment plans of that area including the old former Health Spa 2[15] The Chuck E. Cheese relocated to the Shoppes at IV in 2011.

[17] Six years later, they made a similar decision to retire the Stern's brand and the Bergen Mall flagship joined most of its other sibling stores and was rebranded as Macy's.

In one of the first changes planned for the mall, Century 21 opened on August 10, 2006, taking 67,500 sq ft (6,270 m2) of space in the old Stern's/Macy's building.

[22] On November 30, 2006, the Paramus Planning Board approved a series of changes that would bring the mall up to 1,500,000 sq ft (140,000 m2) at a cost of $171 million.

The mall was renamed to Bergen Town Center, and was planned to include 872,000 sq ft (81,000 m2) of renovated mall retail space and a 167,000 sq ft (15,500 m2) freestanding big-box store across Forest Avenue in Maywood, Lowe's which opened in January 2011.

An affiliate of Men's Wearhouse has won the bidding process, with plans to keep approximately 20 of the chain's stores open.

In 2015, it was confirmed that the mall would undergo a $130 million 200,000 square foot expansion, which was to include adding an additional level, as well as new tenants.

[26] In January 2018, it was announced that the Best Buy location at nearby Westfield Garden State Plaza would close and be relocated to the Outlets at Bergen Town Center property next to the strip mall.

The mall ceiling between Saks OFF 5th and Marshall's is expected to be raised so that escalators and an elevator are able to reach the store.

Also, Pei Wei Asian Diner and Potbelly Sandwich closed in the mall to make way for Ruth's Chris Steak House, which opened in November 2018.

On September 10, 2020, it was announced that Century 21 would be closing all stores, including the Bergen Town Center location.

The theater closed in the face of rising costs and dwindling audiences, and was converted to retail space in 1986.