Their vision began to take shape in 1949 when the Prudential Insurance Company of America acquired a large tract of land where The Mall at Short Hills and part of the Canoe Brook Country Club now sit.

Seven years later, B. Altman & Company opened a 130,000-square-foot (12,000 m2) store on the land and eventually added an additional 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2) to meet market demands.

By 1980, the two organizations had completed a two-year, $100 million project to enclose the mall, which by then included 1,160,000 square feet (108,000 m2) of gross leasable space and three anchor stores.

[5][6] The next expansion phase was completed in August 1995 adding two anchors—a 129,000-square-foot (12,000 m2) Neiman Marcus and a 172,000-square-foot (16,000 m2) Nordstrom—and many new specialty stores including Tiffany & Co., Crate & Barrel, DKNY and others.

[7] It was then announced the space would be reconstructed to feature additional stores such as the U.S. debut of Indigo Books, a relocated Crate & Barrel, and Industrious, a pet-friendly, co-working office spacestore.