The redevelopment of White Flint Mall is still just a Gordon Gekko-esque dream on Rockville Pike. Property owner Lerner Enterprises has fenced off the site, on which only the Lord & Taylor portion of the mall remains standing, surrounded by its former parking lots. That hasn't stopped vandals from trespassing, as the graffiti and boarded-up windows testify. The vast majority of the mall site remains an overgrown patch of weeds and grass, as nature reclaims what was once Montgomery County's ultimate shopping destination.
There's no news on the Lerner website. White Flint Mall's legacy is such an afterthought for the company, that it has placed a photo of it where one of Landover Mall is meant to be on the site. Quelle horreur! Another summer where the property could have been converted into a drive-in theater has nearly passed into history without a single screening of Star Wars or The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
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| An idol has arisen |
White Flint Mall still speaks to those who watch and listen for the signs. A god, an idol, has arisen among the former parking stalls of Lord & Taylor. Its head a golden sphere, its arms outstretched in a martyr's T-pose. Yet the arms are uplifted, reassuring us that in some other dimension all is well at White Flint Mall. The Singapore Firecracker Chicken and Mongolian Beef at P.F. Chang's are still better than whatever you're eating tonight in Montgomery County, the glass elevators still go all the way up to The Loft, Carrie is screening four months after its release on the March 7, 1977 grand opening night of The Movies, the mallwalking Soviet ambassador still has all the right toppings on his foot-long hot dog, and it still takes a good hour to thoroughly peruse the magazine racks at Borders.
But back in this dimension, redevelopment plans remain as moribund as Montgomery County itself. The Late Stage Capitalism Express is arriving at the White Flint, er, "North Bethesda" station. "All aboarrrrrrrrd! Next stop: The Dark Side of White Flint."
"This is a very special part of America. The highest part." - H.V. Waldrove of the Netherlands, after touring White Flint Mall in 1978
The county badly needs to institute a vacant/blighted property tax surcharge to punish slumlords like Lerner and induce them to sell to competent developers.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree.
DeleteAh yes the strategy buying land and let it sit vacant so it generates no revenue path to profits. I believe it's featured in the underpants gnomes' business book.
DeleteThis is clearly yet another property developer trying to navigate the Kafka-esque Montgomery County bureaucracy.
I think that Lord and Taylor is disputing the value of the property and has the whole project tied up in court.
DeleteOnly Mall I ever liked ..bad weather park there read movies shop back to reading.....dining did not disappoint..Bertucci s never made it fully after White Flint
ReplyDelete..
Tell me how you read movies, I'd love to try sometime.
DeleteRIP the late great White Flint Mall. But they have not buried you yet....
ReplyDeleteThe food at The Cheesecake Factory just tasted better at White Flint. I work in the office building next door. I say tear down the old Lord and Taylor building and let nature reclaim the space.
ReplyDeletePLEASE create a senior citizen living center with shopping center restaurants and a medical section. Maybe an assisted living section. Too many senior citizens are turning up missing in Coco. We need a safe place for them.
ReplyDeleteI worked at the Loft from the 1st day it opened. Great experience and made some interesting friends there. The address is Kensington 20895. I won't acknowledge fake "N. Bethesda". Real N. Bethesda is where you'll find Montgomery Mall.
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