[9] Northwest Plaza opened in 1965 as an open-air shopping center comprising 1,600,000 square feet of retail space.

Dillard's acquired and re-branded all Stix, Baer & Fuller stores in 1984 including the River Roads Mall location in North St. Louis County.

[15] Paramount enclosed and expanded the mall in 1989, adding more than 200,000 square feet (18,580.6 m2) of retail space in the process.

The enclosed space contained nearly 2 million square feet (190,000 m2), making it one of the largest malls in the country.

Office supply store chain OfficeMax opened one of its first mall-based location at Northwest Plaza in 1997.

[25] After years of continued decline, Westfield Corporation sold the mall in June 2006[26] to Somera Capital Management, LLC.

Also, crumbling floor tiles in the north court caused by the leaking roof between the former Sears and Dillard's required it to be blocked off from foot traffic.

arcade's 18-hole miniature golf course left behind after it closed was damaged beyond repair by vandalism, and subsequently the basement area was walled off.

arcade, Office Max as well as Schweig Engel Furniture and Toys "R" Us (built on part of the mall's massive parking lot).

[37] The early 2000s recession caused a small decline in the number of stores occupying Northwest Plaza.

A rapid decline began in 2004, due to the increased competition from St. Louis Mills mall, which opened only 4 miles (6.4 km) away from Northwest Plaza.

[40] Burlington Coat Factory then left to move to St. Louis Mills mall, but it was soon rented out to Ford Motor Company.

[41] Schweig Engel Furniture closed in July 2004 when the company went bankrupt[42] but it was briefly replaced with discount retailer US Factory Outlets the following spring[43] before becoming vacant again.

Public access to the building is no longer allowed, as the only stores remaining are contained in the mall's outer ring (with external entrances only) and parking lot.

The future of the mall is unknown, with the idea of a total demolition, and the entire lot renovated into an office complex is one of the main proposals.

The developer was expected to work with Sears, the only remaining anchor at the time, to keep its store on the site, but not necessarily at the same location.

The city of St. Ann holds a purchase option on Northwest Plaza that was set to expire on December 31, 2010.

[58] As reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on July 6, 2011, the distressed Northwest Plaza, with no internal stores which has an 8% overall occupancy, with the office tower less than 50%, was put up for auction online by current owner, a division of Wells Fargo for $1.25 million in an attempt to spark interest in the property.

[62] Menards, a chain of home improvement stores in the Midwest, was announced as the first large retail tenant.

The former Macy's Department Store has been renovated and Charter Communications opened a $16 million call center in January 2016 occupying 135,000 SF.

Save-A-Lot food stores announced that they would be moving their corporate headquarters to the site from Earth City.

[65] Additionally, American Family Insurance leased 81,000 SF of space, relocating from an existing office in the Riverport area of Maryland Heights.

Other outlots were previously developed into Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Popeye's Panda Express, Sherwin Williams, Raising Cane's, QT, the previously mentioned Starbucks, two retail strip centers containing First Watch, Sprint, Jersey Mike's Subs, GNC, and Cricket Wireless.

One outlot containing a freestanding Jack-In-The-Box dates has been in operation since prior to the closure of the original mall.