Originally planned in 1972, the mall was first proposed as the adjacent Cary Village Mall and Cary Village Square projects, part of a $25 million Village Center by local developers Seby Jones. Village Center was to be a, 75 store project including 3 office buildings as well as a motel. Cary Village Center fills the intersection between Maynard Avenue, Walnut Street, and Cary Towne Boulevard, the latter two of which continue to nearby freeways. The enclosed mall was built on the eastern part of the site, with office buildings at the center and two open-air retail pavilions on the north, separated by Cary Towne Boulevard. The request to rezone the area to allow construction of the mall drew much controversy from nearby residents calling themselves "Citizens for the Better Direction of Cary" who worried about increased traffic as well as the property's proximity to Cary High School, Henry Adams School and East Cary School. The group hired an attorney and pressured the town council to closely monitor the development causing York to complain that everything had to be approved "10 times". Cary Village Mall opened on February 21, 1979, with of retail space anchored by Ivey's and Hudson Belk as well as outbuildings occupied by Big Star Markets. The mall's design was a modified pinwheel with four wings, three either parallel to or facing the three streets around it, and a fourth facing to the rear of the mall where additional land remained for a future expansion. At the center of the pinwheel was a sunken, triangular food court. A large Southern Red Oak tree on the expansion land became an unofficial mascot of the mall, and was retained at considerable expense even after the mall grew around it. In 1988, the mall applied for a zoning change for a major expansion, perhaps spurred by proposals for a "mega-mall" at Crossroads Plaza emerged only a mile away. In 1991, the mall completed its expansion to 1.1 million square feet and was renamed Cary Towne Center by then-owners Richard E. Jacobs Group. Unusually for a mall of its size, the mall remained single-story. The new mall included a food court adjacent to the oak tree, a Center Court with palm trees, and three new anchors: Thalhimers, JC Penney, and Sears. In 1992, Dillard's opened a new, larger store adjacent to its original building, which became inline shops. In 2001, the mall was sold to CBL & Associates Properties as part of a portfolio of 21 properties in nine states. That same year, Thalhimer's became Hecht's in 1992, which became Macy's in 2006. On November 6, 2013, a Dave and Buster's opened in the mall. Harris Teeter moved across the street in October 2014 to a larger location. Sears closed its Cary Towne location in January 2015, citing continual financial struggles on the corporate level. In 2015, TopGolf sought zoning approval from the town to open in what had been the Sears space, however plans were later withdrawn due to concerns over lighting and noise issues with a nearby neighborhood. Despite the setback, the mall filled Harris Teeter's former space with Jumpstreet, an indoor trampoline, bounce house, and entertainment complex. Macy's closed its Cary location in early 2016 due to disappointing sales and earning performance. The Sears space was filled in May 2016 by a local furniture store, Cary Towne Furniture, which boasts itself to be the largest furniture retail store in the region. However, the store closed in December 2016. Plans are in the works to transform Cary Towne Center from a traditional mall to a mixed-used development. Spurred on by an announcement made by IKEA to open a 350,000-square-foot store in 2020 where Sears and Macy's were once located, CBL began the rezoning process alongside the Town of Cary to redevelop the property. The submitted mixed use proposal includes retail, residential, office, hotel and community spaces. However, in late May 2018, IKEA reversed its earlier plans and publicly announced the retailer was no longer coming to Cary because of the retail apocalypse, and subsequently CBL announced that it had defaulted on the mall's mortgage and was going to sell the mall. On January 31, 2019, JCPenney announced that they would close their Cary Towne Center location on May 3, 2019. It was included as part of a plan to close 27 stores by July 5, 2019, which the company announced in February 2019. Also on January 31, Turnbridge Equities announced they had purchased the mall. On July 12, 2019, Dillard's announced it was closing its Cary Towne Center store by December, according to a notification it filed with the State of North Carolina. This left Belk as the lone anchor remaining in the mall. As of August 19, 2019, the Cary Towne Center's mall directory includes a store named "Cheaper by the Days" as an anchor in the former Macy's.
