The mall is named for inventor Thomas Edison, who owned a winter residence and laboratory in Fort Myers.

[2][3] Sanders purchased property that was previously a strawberry field for the mall on the northeast corner of U.S. Route 41 and Colonial Boulevard on the south side of Fort Myers.

[4] At the time, US 41 was only two lanes wide, and the only other businesses in the area were a Publix supermarket and a drive-in theater,[5] (which later became the site of a Kmart store, and is now a Floor & Decor).

The Edison Mall was initially anchored by Sears, JCPenney, and Maas Brothers, a Tampa-based department store.

[12][13] The Edison Mall also notably included a Walgreens and a Woolworth's five-and-dime store in its early days.

[17][18] Burdines ultimately selected the Edison Mall for its Fort Myers location and the store opened on August 2, 1979.

As the 1979 expansion was under construction, George Sanders sold the mall to Aster Properties, and a food court was built near Sears in 1981.

The company retained both locations at the Edison Mall and the Maas Brothers store was officially rebranded as Burdines on October 20, 1991.

[26] Along with the rest of the Burdines chain, the two locations at Edison Mall were renamed Burdines-Macy's on January 30, 2004, as the brands were merged by their parent company.

[31][32] In early 2021, the Lee County Government with the Florida Department of Health briefly operated a COVID-19 vaccination site in the former Sears location.

[33] In 2021, Spirit Halloween occuiped a former Love Culture store which later became a pop-up Christmas Tree Shops location in November.