The mall contained a number of unique and national specialty shops such as a Hartford Whalers Team Store, Al Franklin's Musical World, B. Dalton Bookseller, Ann Taylor and Koenig Art Emporium.
A third level contained about 65,000 square feet (6,000 m2) of office space, overlooking both the mall interior and the adjacent streets.
Built and operated by the Hartford-based insurance company Aetna, and called "the bunker" by its critics, the mall was moderately successful in its early years, and was an economic catalyst that for a time stabilized the decline of the downtown retail district in Hartford.
Given its limited size, the accelerating decline in the downtown retail district and the severe recession in the regional economy by the early 1990s, many of the mall's tenants left or ceased operations and the mall fell into severe decline, this also coincided with the move of the Whalers to North Carolina to become the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997.
[3] In 2004 Northland Investment Corporation, the State of Connecticut, the City of Hartford, and Aetna began working to redevelop the former Civic Center Mall complex.