Northwest Plaza opened in 1963 as an open-air shopping center anchored by Famous-Barr, JCPenney, and Sears. Junior anchors included local department stores Vandervoort's (opened in 1965) and Boyd's (an upscale apparel store), a Walgreen's pharmacy, and a two-story Woolworth dime store. The Famous-Barr (later Macy's) store also featured a rotunda. Stix Baer & Fuller later joined the center between 1971 and 1983. When Vandervoort's closed, its building was leased by Famous-Barr to use as its home fashions store while the basement was leased to Venture Stores for office space. Dillard's acquired and re-branded all of the Stix, Baer & Fuller stores in 1984; the same year, New York-based Paramount Group acquired the mall.[citation needed]

Paramount enclosed and expanded the mall in 1989, adding more than 200,000 square feet (18,580.6 m2) of retail space in the process. The biggest change was remodeling the Famous-Barr home store/Venture office space into a mixed-use complex. A huge Tilt! arcade was opened in the basement, the main level became a food court, and a nine-screen movie theater was added on the upper level, replacing a freestanding cinema complex in the mall's parking lot. Kids "Я" Us was also added shortly after the mall's enclosure, and the large Woolworth store was shuttered in early 1989 when the mall terminated its lease. Woolworth was divided between a Phar-Mor pharmacy on the lower level and smaller stores (EXPRESS and Victoria's Secret) on the upper level, while Oshman's SuperSports USA[citation needed] moved into the former Boyd's, which had also closed during enclosure. In the mid 1993 Phar-Mor closed due to a corporate scandal that threw the company into bankruptcy.

Northwest Plaza was acquired in 1997 by the Westfield Group, who re-named the mall "Westfield Shoppingtown Northwest" (later shortened to "Westfield Northwest" in June 2005) to match the nomenclature of other malls in their portfolio. Under Westfield's tenure, the mall saw several new stores opening. Office supply store chain OfficeMax opened one of its first mall-based location at Northwest Plaza in 1997. Burlington Coat Factory moved into the former Oshman's, Schweig Engel Furniture moved into the old Phar-Mor, and many other stores: Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grill, American Eagle Outfitters, and Bath & Body Works. Gap, which had closed in 1996, even opened a new store. By 1999, occupancy had increased by 7%. Additional plans for renovation were made by Westfield Corporation[citation needed], but these plans never got beyond the addition of family restroom and a children's play area. Around this time, Westfield focused more on driving customer business to other area malls such as West County Center in Des Peres and Mid Rivers Mall in St. Peters, in turn neglecting Northwest Plaza, along with its redevelopment and upkeep. The first major vacancy at Northwest Plaza was JCPenney in 2002. There were also minor crime problems at Northwest Plaza, the second lowest occupancy rate in a Westfield mall (Westfield Shoppingtown Northwest had an occupancy rate of seventy-nine percent) and in 2003, St. Louis Mills opened and Northwest Plaza's store loss quickly picked up speed.

OfficeMax was one of the first casualties, closing in 2003, and remaining vacant for eighteen months before being replaced by 24 Hour Fitness. By 2004, Burlington Coat Factory also left that year to move to St. Louis Mills mall in 2003; as of 2007, their former location at Northwest Plaza was still vacant but it was soon rented out to Ford Motor Company. Schweig Engel Furniture closed in July 2004 when the company went bankrupt but it was briefly replaced with discount retailer US Factory Outlets the following spring before becoming vacant again. Furniture retailer IKEA had also planned to open a store at the mall, but later withdrew its plans.

2004 also saw the addition of a Retail Skills Center, which offered training and placement facilities for people seeking careers in retail, the first such center in the Midwest, and discount clothing retailer Steve & Barry's in the former JCPenney. At the time Steve & Barry's opened, it was the largest in the chain. The mall's movie theater complex closed in late 2005, along with the Tilt! arcade as well.

After years of decline, Westfield Corporation sold the mall in June 2006 to Somera Capital Management, LLC. After having bought the mall for $45 million, with General Growth Properties acting as third-party leasing and management agent, the mall's name reverted to Northwest Plaza. As per the Federated Stores/May Co. merger, Famous-Barr was re-branded as Macy's. Later in 2006 or early in 2007, the Tilt closed for good. Somera soon began creating a redevelopment plan, which was approved by the city of St. Ann in 2007.

Somera unveiled a redevelopment plan in which the mall would become Lindbergh Town Center. In the plan, a small part of the Macy's hallway plus the former Kids R Us would be turned into a lifestyle center. The Dillard's and the hallway between it and Sears would become a new anchor, plus the old food court/theater/Tilt would be turned into another anchor. The remaining mall was to be renovated to feature a new "picnic inspired" food court (on the upper level of the former Woolworth's), new flooring, new paint, new skylights, a "Secret Garden" themed play area, and a feature coffee kiosk. After the foreclosure of Northwest Plaza in September 2009, Somera is no longer associated with the property.

A minor fire occurred at 3:13 PM on June 19, 2009. The damage was contained to part of the mall not occupied by tenants. Smoke and water damage is still visible in parts of the mall where the fire occurred.

In July 2010, Sears, the last anchor store at Northwest Plaza closed its doors.

Competition from other shopping centers, poor physical condition, crime and a weakening economy have all contributed to the flight of businesses from the mall. With sales of less than $44 per square foot, Northwest Plaza is considered a dead mall (a facility with sales of $250 or less per square foot and in danger of closing). Northwest Plaza entered foreclosure and was auctioned on September 1, 2009. The shopping center was purchased by the only bidder at foreclosure, St. Ann Shopping Center LLC, for $29.95 million. The Macy's store closed in March 2010 and the Sears store closed in July 2010. Nearly all of the storefronts inside the mall are empty and the food court has been sealed off and closed.