The mall also includes Heritage Town, a food court and market that functions as a notable tourist destination in the Greater Toronto Area.

The expansion would see the construction of a structure that would bring the combined size of the malls to 1,000,000 square feet (90,000 m2), though the project has faced numerous delays.

Pacific Mall is built on the site formerly occupied by Cullen Country Barns, a farm-themed complex opened in 1983 that housed shops, a theatre, and restaurants.

None were historic structures dating back to the time when the site was a working farm, but they were acquired by Cullen and moved from Pickering, Ontario, to Markham in the 1970s.

[22] Historian Erica Allen-Kim argues that Pacific Mall was "a weathervane for Markham's ongoing transformation from a rural township to an ethnoburb.

"[24] Then-deputy mayor of Markham Carole Bell received criticism for her statement that "everything's going Chinese" in response to the proliferation of ethnic malls.

[11][25] She attempted to implement by-laws that would have forbid the rezoning of industrial areas for retail condominiums and made English-language signs mandatory on all structures.

[18] After business at the mall was initially slow, half of the unused second floor (which is owned and operated by Torgan Group, rather than condo leasees[27]) was renovated in 1999 into Heritage Town, a food court and market that contains approximately 100 vendors.

[33] The mall is surrounded by an existing shopping plaza, including remnants of the former Market Village, which collectively encompass over 500 stores and 1,500 indoor and outdoor parking spaces.

[20][34][35][36] A "diminishing number"[36] of stores sell both legitimate and pirated CDs and DVDs; the decline in the sale of these goods can be attributed to regular police raids and the growing ubiquity of this material online.

[18] Pacific Mall was designed by Wallman Clewes Bergman Architects,[37] who built the structure in a combination of red brick, steel beams, and glass.

[39] The project has faced numerous delays;[40][41] while the expansion plan was endorsed by Markham City Council in 2011, it requires additional approvals from the municipal government of Toronto and a majority of the ownership of Pacific Mall, 40 percent of which is composed of individual retailers.

[42] Pacific Mall is noted for its sale of counterfeit and pirated goods, including video games, movies, music, electronic devices, cosmetics, apparel, and fragrances.

[45][46] Pacific Mall management responded that they were "deeply disturbed" by the designation, and stated that they would give warnings to vendors who sold illicit goods.

[58][59] On February 20, 2009, Kit Chen "Daniel" Cheong, 26, was shot and killed at the XSITE Cell Phones store in Pacific Mall.