[4] The official grand-opening for the center was held October 16, 1957, featuring a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Supervisor (and later Southgate's first mayor) Anderson, music by a German polka band, and radio remotes from the parking lot (including Robin Seymour of WKMH, later host of the Swingin' Time program on CKLW-TV and eventually WXON-TV).

The two wings of the L-shaped structure were joined in 1958 with the construction of the mall's anchor tenant, Montgomery Ward, which opened its doors in February, 1959.

Easily the largest business in the center at 133,000 sq ft (12,400 m2), a separate auto shop along Eureka Road was also built that year.

Kresge's closed its dime store in 1982, as its subsidiary, Kmart, was located just east of the center (in a separate building that today houses a Dunham's Sports).

The first physical change to the mall occurred in 1992, when seven storefronts were razed to make room for a Farmer Jack grocery store, adjacent to Service Merchandise.

By the end of the 1990s, the economic climate and the condition of nearby neighborhoods was changing once again, as big-box retailers began overtaking the business of older, established malls, combined with the beginning of the expansion of the decline of Detroit through Lincoln Park into Southgate.

Woolworth closed its Southgate store in January 1994, and Discovery Zone opened in its place later that year, occupying the space until being replaced by Sears Hardware by 1997.

It closed its catalog showroom business by 2003 (later to re-emerge as an online retailer, similar to Montgomery Ward) and razed the building in 2004 and the water tower in 2005.

It was restored and repainted in 2001 thanks to the letter-writing efforts of an elementary school girl, but was razed only four years later to help facilitate future construction on the Service Merchandise land.

Though most recent construction has occurred outside of the original mall (MJR, Downriver Community Federal Credit Union, Old Chicago, Chili's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Applebee's, and Taco Bell), stores that remain inside the strip itself include skateboard/comic shop Anime to Skateboards, Downriver Gymnastics, Innovative Training Solutions, fashion retailer Style U Boutique, the Smoothie Stop cafe, GNC, Planet Fitness, the Metro Ju Jitsu martial arts school and its affiliated Metro After School educational facility, Bath and Body Works, Mira Hair Salon, World of Games, STEP Thrift Store, and the PASC Art Studio.

[15] Ukazoo Books, which opened in a space formerly occupied by the defunct Borders Express in 2011, closed in December 2013 and was replaced in the fall of 2016 by Oak Street Health, an independent primary care clinic.