[1] The mall traces its roots to the White Gold Department Store, established in 1933 by Modesta Singson-Gaisano and moved in 1946 along what is now known as Osmeña Boulevard in Cebu City.

David, the eldest son, kept control of White Gold and established DSG Sons Group, Inc. which opened malls in Mindanao under the Gaisano Malls (GMall) brand.

[6] The White Gold Department Store was hit by fires throughout its history, first in 1974, then in 1989 when it moved to a new location in the Cebu City North Reclamation Area (NRA), and another fire in the 1990s[7][8] prompting it to move to a new location, its third, not far from its second location in December 1997 still in the NRA, and was renamed as the White Gold Club.

[2] The redevelopment plan involved turning the old White Gold Club into a full-service shopping mall which would bring the GMall brand to Cebu, the first GMall brand outside Mindanao.

The group already had plans of bringing the Gaisano Mall brand in Cebu in the late 1990s, which would have been constructed along Natalio Bacalso Avenue beside the Cebu Institute of Technology, before abandoning the project because of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.