Metrotown Centre opened in 1986 – attached to a new Woodward's department store, and a Sears Canada department store that had been operating there since the early 1950s – on land that had held a Ford Canada motor factory,[2] warehouses, other light industry, and a supermarket, and which was adjacent to the former Vancouver Interurban Rail line (now the route for the SkyTrain).

In 2005, a major expansion project combined Metrotown and Metropolis into a megamall, and added many new stores and Western Canada's largest food court.

[3] Construction on Metrotower III, located immediately south of the other two office towers, began in mid-2008, was subsequently put on hold, and was completed in April 2014.

[8] The complex consists of over 450 shops and services; the anchors are Cineplex Cinemas, H&M, Hudson's Bay, Indigo Books and Music, Muji, Old Navy, Real Canadian Superstore, Sport Chek, T & T Supermarket, Toys "R" Us, Uniqlo, Urban Behavior, Walmart, Winners/HomeSense, and Zara.

Immediately below the Central Boulevard entrance and covered walkway is a bus loop and exchange, which is a major hub for services coming in from other parts of Burnaby as well as Vancouver, Richmond, and New Westminster.

In October 2019, Burnaby city council approved a long-term master plan that will eventually replace the mall with a downtown neighborhood with new high rises, retail space, streets, and pedestrian plazas.