White Flint Mall
| Location | North Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 39°2′30″N 77°6′26″W / 39.04167°N 77.10722°WCoordinates: 39°2′30″N 77°6′26″W / 39.04167°N 77.10722°W |
| Address | 11301 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda, MD 20895 |
| Opening date | March 7, 1977 |
| Closing date | January 4, 2015 |
| Developer | Lerner Enterprises |
| Owner | Lerner Enterprises |
| No. of stores and services | 125 (124 vacant) |
| No. of anchor tenants | 1 (2 vacant) |
| Total retail floor area | 800,000 sq ft (74,000 m2) |
| No. of floors | 3 of retail (Lord & Taylor on 2; former Bloomingdale's on 4) |
White Flint Mall was a shopping mall located along Rockville Pike in Montgomery County, Maryland that closed in early 2015. The demolition stage is now complete, and construction is expected to begin soon.
History
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The mall opened in 1977 and was initially anchored by Lord & Taylor, I. Magnin and the second Bloomingdale's location in the Washington D.C. area (after Tyson's Corner Center). Borders Books and Music took over the I. Magnin location in 1992; it closed in 2011. I. Magnin was only on levels 2 & 3 while Lord & Taylor was on levels 1 & 2. Raleigh Haberdasher also had a suburban branch at the center.
Some shopping areas revolved around a motif; Georgetown on the third floor and Via Rialto on the ground floor, which were recreations of the urban districts in Washington and Venice. The latter was a block of shops and restaurants stretching from the center court to the main entrance facing Rockvile Pike where Bertucci's and Cheesecake Factory later stood. Both Georgetown and Restaurant Row, home to Intermission Nightclub and Dining Disco in the late 1970s, the first shopping mall disco in the country, were replaced by Dave & Busters.[1] Other restaurants and fast food vendors populated the mall including the food court The Eatery which went from a darker earth tone color motif to bright neon in the 1980s as well as the third floor loft overlooking the center court.
The mall found creative ways to promote itself over the years. White Flint was the first mall to issue its own credit card to frequent shoppers. To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the mall released its own Monopoly game entitled "White Flint-opoly".[2]
Three decorative water features were located on the first level of the center. The largest was a fountain underneath and around the mirrored escalators, loosely based on the Rialto Bridge and Grand Canal in Venice, in the Via Rialto mall within a mall. This fountain was low to the ground which made it prone to children falling in causing it to be removed when I. Magnin closed. Two identical fountains were in center court, one in front of each Otis inground glass hydraulic elevator, and removed during a 2004 mall facelift. One oddity about the closure of Borders on April 17, 2011,[3] was the sign that remained in front of the escalator leading to its permanently shuttered entrance that read "Temporarily Out of Service".[4] Over the years major celebrities have appeared at the mall like Donna Karan and Elizabeth Taylor, as well as minor and local stars like the cast of MTV's The Real World: D.C., Brigitte Burdine, Andrea Mitchell, Paula Marshall and Giuliana Rancic.[5][6][7]
The mall's impact was felt throughout the metro area in places such as Prince George's County which lacked any regional shopping centers as upscale as White Flint. This led to some spots like Landover Mall and Iverson Mall receiving the nickname "Black Flint Mall", while alternately White Flint was dubbed the "White Iverson Mall".
White Flint was a popular destination on Halloween, known for its annual "Howl-O-Ween" event with special trick-or-treating and hosting children's magic shows performed by area entertainers including The Great Zucchini[8] and Dean Carnegie[9] among others.
The mall was served by the White Flint station on the Red Line of the Washington Metro since 1984.
In November 2011, Lerner Enterprises announced plans to deconstruct the 850,000-square-foot mall and its large parking deck and replace it with four office buildings, a 300-room hotel, 1 million square feet of retail and restaurant space, and 12 apartment buildings consisting of a total of 2,500 residences. The developers expected construction to begin two years following approval and take approximately 25 years to be fully completed.[10]
On January 5, 2012, Macy's Inc. announced that the mall's Bloomingdale's store would close in March 2012.[11] Bloomingdale's closed on March 14, 2012, and the building it occupied was demolished in 2013 prior to the mall's closure.
Lerner Enterprises revived its plans for redevelopment in late 2013. By year's end, the mall had lost more than three-fourths of its stores.[12][13]
On December 24, 2013, WJLA-TV reported that White Flint Mall was permanently closed after nearly 37 years. On August 13, 2014, Dave & Busters was evicted. P. F. Chang's China Bistro closed January 4, 2015 along with the mall entrance, thus shuttering the mall for good.[14] Lord & Taylor is remaining through the redevelopment process however they have been involved in litigation with the mall since July 2013 and went to trial to seek damages on July 28, 2015. [15] Contractors began the exterior demolition of the mall, beginning with the southeastern parking garage nearest to the former Bloomingdales store site, on July 7, 2015. Demolition of the actual mall building and garage was finished in January 2016. On August 14, 2015 the court ruled that White Flint owed Lord & Taylor $31,000,000.[16]
References
- ↑ Maraniss, David (May 2, 1978). "White Flint a Social as Well as Shopping Center". Washington Post. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
- ↑ http://www.terapeak.com/worth/white-flint-opoly-white-flint-mall-bethesda-md-new-fs/380550627118/
- ↑ Rosenwald, Michael (April 17, 2011). "At Borders' closing, everything on shelves is priced to go. The shelves, too.". Washington Post. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
- ↑ Escalator Temporarily Out of Service (Photograph). White Flint Mall. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
Escalator Temporarily Out of Service. Please utilize the escalators located in the Lord & Taylor Wing or elevators in Centre Court. We apologize for any inconvenience. WHITE FLINT
- ↑ Zall, Barnaby (July 8, 2009). "MTV's "Real World" Comes to White Flint (no, really)". Friends of White Flint. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
- ↑ "Paula Marshall, Class of 1982 ...again!". The Midnight Sun Online: Robert E. Peary H.S. - Rockville, MD. Midnight Sun Online. Archived from the original on November 30, 2011.
- ↑ Staff, Washingtonian Magazine (August 24, 2016). "How to Dress in DC". Retrieved 25 August 2016.
- ↑ Li McHugh, Patti (October 31, 2012). "Happy Halloween". It's My MoCo. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
- ↑ Carnegie, Dean (December 13, 2010). "Mall Show Are Back". Carnegie: Artist of Mystery. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ↑ Ruoff, Alex. "Plan envisions White Flint Mall becoming a "town"". North Bethesda development would create community of apartments, retail and more. gazette.net. Archived from the original on 2011-11-22. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
- ↑ "Closing: 5 Macy's And 4 Bloomingdale's Stores". AOL Jobs. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
- ↑ Chaney, Jen (December 22, 2013). "White Flint's last Christmas: Closing of a past retail mecca hints at an American era's end". Washington Post. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
- ↑ "Tales of the Dying Mall: White Flint Mall (Photo Gallery)". Retrieved 20 January 2015.
- ↑ Robert Dyer. "Robert Dyer @ Bethesda Row". Retrieved 20 January 2015.
- ↑ Sernovitz, Daniel J. (May 28, 2015). "Trial date set for showdown between the White Flint Mall and its last remaining tenant". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ↑ O'Connell, Jonathan (August 14, 2015). "Jury rules White Flint Mall owners breached contract with Lord & Taylor". Washington Post. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
