Westwood Mall opened as a 350,000 square foot shopping center located at 4335 W Fairfield Drive at Mobile Highway. It sat on 35 acres of land, provided parking for 2000 cars, and employed 400 people. The five million dollar facility was negotiated in 1968 by Robert Cramer Realty, who also handled the business leases, and was developed by Stanley J Harte. Construction began in 1970, and it opened on October 11, 1971.
The anchor stores were WT Grant and JM Fields. The latter, along with Pantry Pride, enjoyed an earlier opening date of September 28, 1971, and to a record 10,000 customers.
Other stores included American Handicrafts, Ava's Ladies Ready To Wear, BookLand, Cal's Shoes, Dipper Dan Ice Cream, Gilberg's Fabrics, Grice Electronics, Johnnie Cox II, Karmelkorn Shoppe, La Marick Beauty Salon, Motherhood Maternity, Merbler's Jewelry, Morse Shoes, Nelson's, Oakcrest Barber Shop, Pizza Wagon, Playtime Child Care, Rich's Britches, Silhouette Children's Wear, Sir Lance's Lot, SuperX Drugs, Wash Bowl Laundromat, and others.
The Westwood 4 Cinemas opened on the later date of October 28, 1971.
The grand opening was followed by slowly decreasing customer traffic, which led to many of the smaller businesses not renewing their leases. In 1976, WT Grant vacated, and in April 1979, JM Fields followed suit, resulting in close to half the retail space being left unoccupied.
In 1983, Westwood Mall began dba Mariner Mall, and on January 10, 1986, Westwood 4 Theaters began advertising as Mariner 4.