Most of the mall is in the northwest part of Des Moines, but the wing that contains the former Younkers, Dinks Pickleball and the food court is inside the city limits of neighboring Urbandale.

In 1956, the Passionist monks who resided there sold the monastery site to Chicago-based developers Joseph Abbell and Bernard Greenbaum.

Abbell, in a 1994 interview, stated that the developers chose Des Moines for their mall because of the city's "reputation as a model urban area in middle America.

Other early tenants included a Safeway supermarket (whose space later became part of Sears), Kresge, Bishop's Buffet (which closed in 1995), and Walgreens (which was replaced by an Old Navy in 1999).

Two additional anchors, Montgomery Ward (which also moved from downtown) and Younkers Store for Homes, were added to the mall as part of that expansion.

[11] In a 1994 interview with The Des Moines Register, Iowa State University economist Kenneth Stone stated that Merle Hay Mall successfully adapted to the changing lifestyles of the 1960s and 1970s by offering longer shopping hours during a time when downtown Des Moines merchants began restricting their hours.

[13] The original Younkers store at Merle Hay Mall was destroyed by a fire that broke out on the morning of November 5, 1978.

Court documents filed by prosecuting attorneys in 1981 stated that an electrical malfunction caused wires that were covered in polyvinyl chloride to overheat, giving off hydrochloric acid.

Most of those lawsuits were settled out of court in 1984, while the last suit against B.F. Goodrich was dismissed by a Polk County district judge in April 1986.

[19] Montgomery Ward responded by closing in early 1999, and Famous-Barr opened a new store in that space in August 2000, while the rest of the mall underwent a $20 million renovation that year.

The mall has one vacant anchor space under development to become a hockey facility which was formerly occupied by Younkers (165,000 sq ft) The mall has over 60 inline tenants including a food court along with a vacant portion of the building which had been a single-screen movie theater with the largest movie screen in Des Moines.

Staples announced in late-2016 that it would be closing their store in Merle Hay Mall with the actual last day of business occurring on February 4, 2017.

By August, some prominent retailers, Helzberg Diamonds, Victoria's Secret and Justice among them; closed their locations in the mall.

[30] In November 2020, the Des Moines Buccaneers hockey team announced they would build a new sports facility in the old Younkers and adjacent areas.

The new project will see a 3,500-capacity arena for the Bucs, three additional sheets of ice for tournaments and community use, and a 150-room hotel, to be completed ahead of the 2022-23 hockey season.

As of 2025, the Des Moines Buccaneers announced that they would no longer be partnering with the Merle Hay Mall to build a hockey sports facility.