Monday, March 20, 2023

The final days of Lakeforest Mall, closing March 31, 2023 (Video + Photos)


The end is nigh for Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg. Opened as a grand shopping and entertainment destination with distinctive architecture on September 12, 1978, the mall was hugely popular through the end of the 1990s. But then, a succession of greedy owners conspired with the sugar baby corrupt politicians they controlled in Montgomery County to run the successful mall into the ground. 

The mall's signature fountain and skating rink were removed, and local elected officials intentionally allowed crime to spiral out of control. Predictably, crowds began to thin, and quality tenants began to move out. 

The mall will close March 31, 2023, and will be demolished in 2024. It will be replaced with a massive housing development that will bring thousands of new residents to a property that has no rapid transit station, and no new highways planned, a traffic disaster in the making. Of course, the same political machine that helped run down the mall is approving that redevelopment.

Let's take a last look around inside Lakeforest Mall, where remaining anchor tenant Macy's was in its final hours before closing for good. We'll ride the glass elevator, and the escalators. You'll see some ghosts from the mall's past, including JCPenney, Sbarro, Ruby Tuesday and Sears. 

You'll also see that this is another example of crony capitalism gone utterly mad, with a perfectly-good mall building being torn down long before its time, with all of the waste and environmental harm such greedy demolitions generate. The new development won't have retail of even half the quality the mall did, if the tenant rosters of other post-Great-Recession developments north of Rockville are any guide. Here's a final look at the breathtaking architecture, thought-provoking art installations, inspiring aesthetics, and the grand lines and designs that represent all that is good in America and western civilization. Lakeforest Forever!







































































27 comments:

  1. This is a really nice post and tribute to Lakeforest mall,I spent a lot of time working and shopping and hanging out at the mall from around the time it opened until around ten years ago.You are so right about the crime at the mall.Lakeforest really did have some great stores at one time, some that I remember are: Walden Books, Waxie Maxie records, Arby's, I believe there was a short lived Brentano Books in the early 1990s. Definitely good stores and good memories, I appreciate the tribute to Lakeforest!

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  2. There was Woodward and Lothrop, Lord and Taylor, Hechts, Sears. There was Waldenbooks and A&W Rootbeer. Lakeforest was grand, back in the day. And we used to fish at the lake that was later drained and filled in to build it. Montgomery Village was nice.

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  3. In its time, Lakeforest Mall was nicer than Montgomery Mall, White Flint or Tyson's Corner. Thanks for the video. Very well done.

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  4. Lol, care to explain why the mall's owners and county politicians conspired to convince people not to go to this mall anymore? Did the county also conspire with mall owners across the US to ruin a thousand other dead malls too or is that just pure coincidence?

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    1. They conspired so it could be torn down for bigger profits through redevelopment as residential.

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    2. Your patheticism never ceases to amaze me. Conspiring to get bigger profits from a mall whose tax revenue would exceed any replacement development could ever generate. GET REAL DYER!

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    3. So the county conspired to...bring billions of dollars of investment to Gaithersburg? As if that's a bad thing? Even still, the conspiracy theory of the county luring massive investment to the area doesn't make sense because the property owner obviously is allowed to redevelop the property any time they want, blight or not. Lerner proved that quite clearly by bulldozing White Flint for redevelopment even though it was still quite successful. That's likely soon to be the case with a chunk of Montgomery Mall, as well. Malls are being redeveloped because they're no longer popular, not because of some political conspiracy.

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    4. Same as White Flint Mall which led to its destruction despite having a Cheesecake Factory and a Dave and Busters. And

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    5. 5:48/12:10: "Malls are being redeveloped" because zoning restrictions are being lifted nationwide, which is allowing them to be redeveloped, thanks to a vigorous campaign by development firms.

      Lerner pulled the plug at White Flint when parking lots were still jammed - it was still very popular. Others, like Lakeforest's owners, take the approach of running their property into the ground over time, then pleading poverty as an excuse for upzoning for housing.

      Yet another factor in the "malls are failing" hoax is the role development firms' financial allies like Bain Capital and Carlyle Group play: Snapping up popular mall tenants and anchor store chains, sucking them dry of cash and liquidating assets, and then tossing the husk away in bankruptcy. When the stores close, developers say, "See, the mall is dying!"

      As for the "investment in Gaithersburg" idea: Alas, we now know from experience that residential development generates more in costs for services and infrastructure than it does in revenue.

      What that means, is that Lakeforest Mall was generating more net revenue for the County than the new development that will replace it.

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    6. "What that means, is that Lakeforest Mall was generating more net revenue for the County than the new development that will replace it."

      But you just said MoCo conspired to cause the mall to fail because doing so would result in "bigger profits."

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    7. Yes, bigger profits for the developer/landowner. But the costs generated by that new residential development - of which the developer pays only a small portion, one time, upfront - are paid by County taxpayers. Those new costs *exceed* the amount of tax the developer pays on those bigger profits. With a net loss of revenue for the County, the money generated in revenue would therefore be less than the net positive revenue the current mall generates.

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    8. So county politicians conspired with the out-of-town developer over the course of decades to make fewer people interested in Lake Forest Mall and force the city of Gaithersburg to approve investment in the mall site which is actually a bad thing and will hurt the county. Got it.

      Or maybe the more reasonable theory is that "JCPenney, Sbarro, Ruby Tuesday and Sears" - and many other the mall's tenants - going bankrupt had more to do with the mall's vacancy problems and decline than some secret campaign by politicians.

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    9. Sears closed at Montgomery Mall, too, but Westfield isn't tearing it down in response. The "investment" will indeed hurt the County's finances, but not the developer's.

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    10. You should read about Westfield's plans for that Sears wing. Yes, it involves tearing it down and redeveloping.

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    11. I love factless posts, I suppose the fact that the Mall was sold at a loss by the bank was just part of the conspiracy, you know, losing $200 million for the bank was just a front. You are just a part of the delusional, lets spread factless propaganda engine, that wants nothing more than to destroy the country because you aren't happy that a politician doesn't have an R after their name.

      Maybe too many people are shopping at Amazon? I never stopped going to Lakeforest becasue of the "crime" I just didn't need anything they had for sale. And I moved here 2 years after it opened, when I went there, loved it. But like movie theaters some ideas just run out of steam.

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    12. Wow, can't believe your message got posted. I directed a much less pointed barb at the Republicans and it didn't get posted.

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  5. Just what Gaithersburg needs. More apartments.

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  6. Just unleash the zombies and let them eat everyone in the malls, Dawn of the Dead indeed. Consumers are like that,they consume. I agree with Rockville Nights.

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  7. I also agree with Rockville Nights.

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  8. A huge number of factors create the phenomena of "dead malls."

    1. Department store consolidation leading to few anchor store competitors and less differentiation among them. There are just a few national chains now, and regional chains like Hecht and Woodies are defunct. That's not just a DC thing. Jordan and Marsh of Boston is now Macy's, so is Wanamaker's of Philly, etc.
    2. Department store downsizing in the wake of consumer shifts. Many big retailers recognize their role as showrooms for purchases eventually made online and charge fees to manufacturers to recover the cost. This is especially true in durable goods and in electronics. Mom & Pop and small chain operations can't do that.
    3. The rise of big-box and warehouse retailers (Costco, Sam's Club and Walmart were not nearby when Lakeforest was built).
    4. Retail apocalype factors:
    a. consumer preference for home delivery and internet shopping
    b. consumer shift in spending habits - a greater percentage of disposable income being spent on dining, travel, and experiences than on hard goods and clothing
    c. changes in work environment. Your wardrobe has much more range when you can casual clothing to the office, something very uncommon in the 1970s and 1980s when malls were in their heyday.
    d. Retail management generally - most chains grow too quickly, sustain too much inventory, and are therefore highly leveraged.
    5. Many infill shops of the mall's heyday are so specific they cannot be sustained elsewhere. You won't find a main street store selling just neckties or orange syrup drinks.
    5. The fact that malls were grossly overbuilt. They were built at nearly double the rate of US population growth in large measure because accellerated depreciation (1950s tax change) made them enormously profitable for developers.

    It's still possible to have some malls in a large city. Just not as many as we once did, and they have to be reinvented and very well situated to be sustained. Transportation hubs, highway access, new and different anchors, more emphasis on the experience economy--that's what makes large malls that are still going successful.

    Finally--good riddance to Lakeforest. It is a desert of impermeable parking surface, very little tree canopy, with a very inefficient and outdated set of structures in its middle. It's ripe for redevelopment. Almost anything the developers choose to build there would be more attractive and useful.

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  9. George Romero should never have made Night of the living Dead or Dawn of the Dead. Both movies are very bad,but especially Dawn of the Dead,which was banned by the Church.

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  10. If there are any adults in this comment thread…and if those same adults can’t separate their emotions, the ones rooted in childhood, and separate them from the realistic fact the every time you ordered from Amazon YOU aided in killing this building, then what we have here are old children. If you are looking for conspiracies instead of thinking a little then you lack intelligence. The end! Even before Covid ( I see you dummies thinking about blaming Covid) MALLS AROUND THE COUNTRY HAVE BEEN CLOSING..GO OUT BEYOND THE 30 miles around your house, open your eyes and see it’s not about you 🤡

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    1. Online shopping isn't responsible for malls closing, although the developers who want to tear them down would like the public to think so. It has much more to do with a national effort by developers to change zoning laws, and the destruction of many retail chains by private investment firms who also stand to benefit from mall demolitions. As a result, mall owners seek the greater profits available from redevelopment of their properties as residential housing. In the case of Lakeforest, they had the assistance of Montgomery County government allowing crime to flourish around and at the mall, to scare away shoppers. It is a conspiracy, but you're correct that it's not just happening here.

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    2. Let the malls die. Create mixed retail, residential areas akin to CBDs or high street areas. Make them walkable, nearly self contained neighborhoods.

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    3. 11:33: Like a "15 minute city?"

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  11. I agree with Richard Dyer

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  12. No offense to your nostalgia… we all have fond memories of are hay days at the mall. However; I remember Lakeforest being on the news almost daily for its crime issues in the 90’s! I remember thinking I don’t know where this mall is but I never want to go there! (I grew up in NoVa).
    The thing is malls are shutting down everywhere, all over this country.
    People don’t want them at the level they use to anymore.
    So any mail at this point that isn’t well maintained and the only one for miles around, isn’t worth the space it takes up. All that space in this highly congested area certainly has better options then that mall. Glad to see it go… Sad that the good times of my era are no longer, but that’s the way the world turns.

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