In the last decade, even though the importance of shopping centers appear to decrease day by day, their place within the Turkish real estate market displays a considerable rise. Among those reasons underlying the increase of investments on shopping malls take place the stability of the economic environment, the insufficiency of supply within the market of shopping centers, the young and dynamic population, the increase on gross domestic product, and the high profit ratio compared to other countries. As an explanatory research, this study targets at evaluating the changes and development of shopping centers in history, identifying the characteristics of today's shopping centers, examining the location criteria of shopping centers, and focusing on the development of shopping centers from the world-wide scale to Turkey and Denizli. This study has dwelled upon the characteristics and classification of shopping centers in the world by ICSC and DeLisle and of those in Turkey by AMPD. Among the examined issues take place the adopted criteria in selection of location for shopping centers and the development process of Turkish shopping centers as based on quantitative information obtained. The development process of shopping centers in Turkey have been analyzed for the period between 1988-2009 and in addition to existing circumstances, future considerations have also been made. Examination of the development process of shopping centers in Denizli, on the other hand, has involved consideration of firstly the geographical and socio-economic status of the city, and then of the urban development profile as well as the traditional trade district. In the final stage of the examination, all shopping centers in Denizli have been chronologically analyzed in terms of their development processes, investors, relations with the urban pattern, physical characteristics, transportation facilities and accessibility. In result of the comparative evaluation, discussions focus mainly on the location of shopping centers and their harmony with the urban pattern as well as their future strategies against the threat of becoming identical with one another.