Criswell, two real estate developers from Nashville, Tennessee, first proposed to build Green Hills Village in 1953.

The firms selected a site along Hillsboro Pike (US 431) and Abbott Martin Road, an area which their research determined had the most population growth between 1940 and 1950.

The original plans were for a 135,000-square-foot (12,500 m2) strip mall with Castner Knott and Gus Mayer department stores.

A brand new Nordstrom store, Tennessee's first, opened in 2011 next to Dillard's at the mall's entrance facing Abbott Martin Road.

[4] In 2013, an addition to the mall was announced that would include a new, larger Dillard’s store, as well as 125,000 square feet of new retail space.