[13] Hickory Hollow Mall opened on August 11, 1978, on 27 acres of land in Nashville's burgeoning southeastern neighborhood amidst the explosive growth.

[8][15] The mall's structure featured three wings in a T-shaped layout connected by a large two-story atrium hub, containing a total of 137 tenants, including an arcade and a movie theater.

[1][8][14][15] On opening night, Mall Cinemas 1–2–3 operated by Consolidated Theatres screened first-run movies starting with Animal House, Grease, and Hooper.

[1] Big-name retailers occupying the 617,000 sq ft (57,300 m2) inner core of the building included national chains B. Dalton Booksellers, The Gap, Kay Jewelers, Thom McAn, and Hallmark Cards.

[8][19][20] Original tenants also included locally based Kirkland's, The Tennessee Coffee Company, and the initial location of Angelo's Picnic Pizza.

[24] On August 5, 1987, the $180 million facility Hamilton Place opened in Chattanooga with an overall size of 1,170,712 sq ft (108,762.7 m2), surpassing the Mall of Memphis as the largest in Tennessee.

[1][8] Cain-Sloan was sold to national department store chain Dillard's in 1987, occupying the space for the next four years, while the mall theater Carmike Cinemas was acquired in July 1989.

[8][15] On April 25, 1997, Carmike Cinemas opened the Hickory 8 in the east parking lot leading to the closure of the mall's original theater shortly thereafter.

[25][27] In 1998, Castner Knott's 100-year history came to an end when they were acquired by Dillard's, the anchor of the east wing undergoing a constant metamorphosis over the next seven years.

[28] To avoid antitrust violations, those spaces were sold to Saks Incorporated and rebranded as Proffitt's including the Hickory Hollow location which was then extensively remodeled.

CBL & Associates, the real estate investment trust that manages Chattanooga's Hamilton Place, bought Hickory Hollow Mall for nearly $200 million in the summer of 1998.

[31][32] To compete with the city's newer malls, more renovations took place in 2002 and 2003 adding a children's play area and a revamped food court along with new carpeting, updated fixtures, and architecturally enhanced entrances.

[32] Contributing factors included drastic changes in community demographics, a sharp increase in Antioch's violent crime rate, and several well-publicized shootings on the mall's property within a relatively short span of time.

[43] In their absence, mall occupancy had fallen from 91% in 2003 to 82% in 2006 when the 138,000 sq ft (12,800 m2) JCPenney space was acquired by Steve & Barry's University Sportswear in May of 2006.

[8] At the end of 2009, store occupancy had fallen below 70%, and Hickory Hollow was ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of America's 10 most endangered malls.

[15] Major tenants The Children's Place, Hot Topic, New York & Company, and Lane Bryant announced they would vacate the mall by January 23, citing poor sales since the departure of Dillard's and JCPenney.

[15] Meanwhile, the east and west wings, respectively flanked by Macy's and Sears, remained heavily occupied by such notable franchises as Aéropostale, Charlotte Russe, Wet Seal, Bath & Body Works, Electronic Express, and Buckle.

[1][49] Six days later, on January 4, 2012, CEO Terry J. Lundgren announced Macy's intended to close five underperforming locations nationwide including the Hickory Hollow store.

[3][4][5][54] Reinsmidt stated "We are working closely with local officials to explore options that would recreate Hickory Hollow and allow the center to best serve the needs of the community.".

On November 7, 2012, Target, located just on the opposite side of I-24 (around a mile from the mall), announced that it would close its 31-year-old Hickory Hollow area store on February 2, 2013, due to poor financial performance.

[63] The grand re-opening was held on May 18, 2013, rebranded as Tennessee's first international mall with 20 restaurants and retailers and plans to expand to 80 tenants by mid-summer.

[20] Represented by the real estate firm CBRE, both tenants and a potential buyer were being sought with prospects of a charter school, call center, medical facilities, and large anchor retailers occupying the inner core of the mall.

[20] On October 17, 2014, the 22,000 sq ft (2,000 m2) Nashville Global Market, a massive international grocery store, opened in the space formerly occupied by Foot Locker and Lerner New York bringing the mall's occupancy up to 30%.

[13] At 1:15 p.m. on August 5, 2015, 29-year-old Vincente David Montano entered the Carmike Hickory 8 movie theater (now the AMC CLASSIC Antioch 8), just outside the east wing of the mall, carrying two backpacks and armed with a hatchet and a pellet gun.

[76] He unleashed copious amounts of pepper spray inside a theater where eight people were viewing Mad Max: Fury Road.

[67] In March 2016, Brentwood-based real estate firm Crestview Resources (owner of the headquarters of Brookdale Senior Living) finally purchased the property from Sears Roebuck and Co. for $5 million, including 17 acres of surrounding space.

[66][84] On July 6, 2016, the Bridgestone tire company headquartered in Nashville announced plans to relocate its IT and customer service centers to the upper floor of the former Sears space.