Plans for the shopping centre were announced in July 1966. The first stage would be the construction of a 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) Hay's department store and supermarket, with the second stage being the construction of the 40,000 sq ft (3,700 m2) mall with a variety store, supermarket and around 25 specialty stores. The entire shopping centre would include off-street parking for 500–600 cars and would cost £1 million to construct. Construction began on the Hay's store in September 1966 followed by the mall in February 1967.[4][5]
The Hay's store opened to shoppers on 18 October 1967,[6] with the full shopping centre with 22 stores opening two weeks later on 1 November 1967.[7] On the opening day of the Hay's store, traffic trying to enter the carpark backed up along Main North Road, at times blocking the Harewood Road roundabout 200 metres south of the shopping centre.[8] On 3 November 1967, the shopping centre's first Friday late-night opening, traffic backed up along Main North Road and Papanui Road at times as far back as Blighs Road, 700 metres south of the shopping centre.[9]
A major extension to Northlands opened on 10 October 1979, bringing the mall to 44 stores and 160,000 sq ft (15,000 m2), including a New World supermarket.[10]
In December 2022 Kiwi Property arranged a conditional deal to sell the shopping centre to MP Holdings 5 Ltd. a Queenstown based company owned by Mackersy Property, the deal is subject to approval from the Kiwi Property board.[12][13]
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