Taubman spoke privately to Bates, letting him know they would withdraw the Hilltop proposal unless they received at least one of the three votes, adding they would then build the shopping mall in a neighboring city.

Bates, fearful of losing the sales tax revenue, made a motion and voted to support the Hilltop site.

The GM Pension Trust assumed full ownership of Hilltop Mall in 1998, retaining Taubman Centers as manager.

On December 23, 2011, a shopping frenzy over retro Air Jordan shoes resulted in temporary closure of the mall after shots were fired.

[11] Similar events occurred at the nearby Westfield Solano and the Bayfair Center malls in Fairfield and San Leandro, respectively.

[11] In August 2012, Greg Maloney, president of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) Retail, was appointed receiver by the Contra Costa Superior Court to assume management of the property due to Simon's loan default.

[13] Also in July 2017, LBG Real Estate Companies, LLC[14] and Aviva Investors announced the purchase of the Hilltop Mall property.

The renovated shopping center, as designed by Onyx Creative,[16] would have contained new dining, entertainment, office, and retail tenants.

After redevelopment, The Shops at Hilltop would have hosted 99 Ranch Market as a new anchor tenant and a variety of dining options representing many different cuisines.

[17] There were also plans for personal care services and several entertainment options including a live theater[18] as well as a mix of creative office tenants to the center connecting the shopping, dining, and cultural experiences to the workplace.

LBG failed to improve the site as promised and the COVID-19 pandemic in the San Francisco Bay Area caused retail occupancy to plummet from 50% to 16%.

[28] Hilltop Mall was laid out with two intersecting hallways aligned with the cardinal directions and four anchor store sites at each point, similar to Eastridge Mall in San Jose, which also was developed by Taubman; in its final configuration, the longer (east-west) axis ran between JCPenney on the west end and Macy's (formerly Capwell's/The Emporium) on the east, while the shorter (north-south) axis ran between Sears on the north end and Walmart (formerly Macy's) on the south.

Solar Cantata, a sculpture created by Charles O. Perry in 1971 using gold-anodized aluminum, is installed above the fountain and can be viewed from the spiral ramp.