At the time of its construction, Sunvalley Shopping Center was said to be the largest air-conditioned regional shopping center in the world. Developed by A. Alfred Taubman, the shopping center opened on August 5, 1967 with a performance by Tony Martin and is 1.333 million square feet on two floors. In the mall's early days it had 40 vendors including three anchor stores: a 233,000 square-foot Macy's, a 241,000 square-foot Sears, and a 216,000 square-foot JCPenney on three floors. A fourth anchor tenant was built in 1981: a three-floor, 180,000 square-foot Emporium Capwell, which operated as The Emporium from 1990 to 1995 until the department store's sale to Federated Department Stores; this location later became a Macy's Men's/Home/Cellar/Backstage, reducing the number of different anchor tenants in the mall to three. A World's Fare food court made up of international restaurants also included staples like donuts and Kentucky Fried Chicken; stores included piano-organ stores, an art gallery, a pet shop, a post office, an ice skating rink, cages of rare birds, and water fountains in numerous locations. The SunValley Cinema had 1,500 seats and the parking lot had 9,000 spaces. On December 23, 1985, a twin-engine light plane crashed into the mall after missing its initial landing attempt at nearby Buchanan Field. Seven people died, including three on the plane, and seventy-seven were injured. The accident caused $3.5 million in damages to the mall.
In 1991, the Center completed a two-year $40 million renovation which included installing 198 skylights, Italian marble walkways and chrome and glass railings. In 2012, Sunvalley Shopping Center completed a multimillion-dollar renovation that included new mall entrances with illuminated signage, seating and landscaping. Parking amenities were also enhanced with energy-efficient LED lighting on the upper east parking deck, new exterior directional signage and landscaping. Inside the center, Grand Court was completely renovated with the addition of Wi-fi, device charging, and a full-service customer service desk. The amount of seating throughout the center was doubled and new faux landscaping was installed. In 2016, the mall opened a new Food Court containing restaurants such as Chicken Connection, Charley's Philly Steaks, and Lotus Express, and Round 1 opened in the former Sports Authority space. On June 23, 2020, JCPenney announced that it would close by around October 2020 after nearly 53 years of operation as part of plan to close 149 stores nationwide. On July 17, JCPenney announced that the Sunvalley location will remain open.
