[5] The four major malls in the borough—Garden State Plaza (opened in 1957), Bergen Town Center (also 1957), Fashion Center (opened in 1967) and Paramus Park—account for a major portion of the $6 billion in annual retail sales generated in Paramus, more than any other ZIP Code in the United States.

The Fashion Center, which is located near Paramus Park along Route 17, was the first built specifically as a strictly-indoor facility and opened in 1967.

[16] The mall is shaped as a four-legged zigzag, with an anchor store at each end and the mezzanine-level food court encircling an atrium which featured 6,000 US gallons (23,000 L; 5,000 imp gal) of water flowing each minute over a 30-foot (9.1 m) terraced waterfall surrounded by vegetation and punctuated by a pair of escalators; claimed to be the nation's second largest, tens of thousands of coins were tossed into the artificial waterfall, with nearly $3,500 collected in the mall's first year.

[17] In its first 25 years, some 12 million coins had been collected from the waterfall, with an average of $400 per month donated from the proceeds to charitable organizations in the area.

Two small courtyards were at the other leg intersections; one hosted a carousel and the other a lowered seating area with a bronze statue of a turkey, standing 10 feet (3.0 m) in height.

Paramus comes from the Lenni Lenape Native American word meaning "land of the wild turkey" or "place of fertile soil".

[22] In 1986, Paramus Park was the site of an innovative McDonald's restaurant in its food court, which featured a décor with oak trim, pastel tiles and marble counters, in lieu of the traditional plastic interior in primary colors.

[23][24] Hanson's 1997 video "Tulsa, Tokyo & the Middle of Nowhere", features the band traveling to Paramus Park on May 7, 1997, performing in the food court in front of over 6,000 screaming fans;[25] the performance had been promoted by radio station WHTZ, which had anticipated a crowd numbering in the hundreds, not the thousands who showed up.

[28] During the Great Recession of 2007-2009, the mall's smaller stores, historical lower congestion and location along the Garden State Parkway in an affluent area attracted upscale shoppers and tenants that had previously shifted away from smaller malls in lieu of the larger ones in the area, such as Westfield Garden State Plaza, according to a 2011 NorthJersey.com report.

[4][30] In May 2013, following a unanimous vote from the local zoning board, plans began to construct a 13-screen movie theater on 88,000 square feet (8,200 m2) of space to be added the west side of the mall, attached to the food court.

[32] On December 7, mall representatives appeared at a public hearing to request approval by zoning officials to convert the aging Sears department store into a Stew Leonard's supermarket and movie theater.

[33] By 2019, NJ.com, the completed 80,000-square-foot (7,400 m2) supermarket, the first one built by Stew Leonard's in New Jersey, had "transformed Paramus Park Mall into a different kind of destination" by providing a new option for grocery shoppers.