Monday, October 12, 2015

Demolition of main White Flint Mall building underway (Photos)

The Dark Side of White Flint, Part 38

Welcome to The Dark Side of White Flint, an ongoing series about the not-so-wonnerful, wonnerful, wonnerful side of urbanizing the suburbs of Montgomery County.

After destroying the parking decks surrounding the legendary mall, construction crews are now demolishing White Flint Mall itself. As you can see in these photos, the iconic entrance of the dead mall is demolition central right now, with piles of debris surrounding it.

Now that the recent court decision has vindicated the arguments both I and Lord & Taylor have been making for years, expect the demolition and posturing to continue by mall owner Lerner. All the threats you've been hearing about the development being unable to go forward is simply an attempt to influence the public, the media, elected officials - and ultimately the courts - to absolve them from their $31 million in legal obligations to Lord & Taylor. I salute Lord & Taylor for their continued willingness to fight, and for their loyalty to the patrons of their store and of the mall itself. Imagine trying to run that store when everyone is under the impression that the whole property is closed, and in direct violation of the agreement signed by both parties.

The question of whether or not Wegman's has lost interest in building a store on the grandfathered Bloomingdale's footprint is the actual issue that theoretically would be of most concern to Lerner. Long rumored, a Wegman's would have certainly been used by Lerner to deodorize the "town center" it intends to replace the mall with from public criticism. Without a coveted anchor like Wegman's, it will be far more challenging to draw traffic from the multiple other town centers that will be operating in the Pike District - and many more are on the way.

Certainly, some of these town centers will be successful. But is fully urbanizing the area going to be sustainable for 9 or more individual property owners, each having restaurants and stores that need to pay rent fighting for the same audience?




Explore the Dark Side further:

Take a last flight through the wreckage of White Flint Mall - aboard a drone!

All photos ©2015 Robert Dyer
Do not steal these photos without permission!

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I salute Lord & Taylor for their continued willingness to fight, and for their loyalty to the patrons of their store and of the mall itself."

Sure you do. But do you actually shop there?

"a Wegman's would have certainly been used by Lerner to deodorize the 'town center' it intends to replace the mall with from public criticism"

This morning's Word Salad.

Anonymous said...

All comments ©2015 Anonymous
Do not steal this comment without permission!

Anonymous said...

And the previous sentence falls into that category, too.

"The question of whether or not Wegman's has lost interest in building a store on the grandfathered Bloomingdale's footprint is the actual issue that theoretically would be of most concern to Lerner."

Also, Dyer seems to not understand what the term "grandfathered" actually means.

Anonymous said...

"Certainly, some of these town centers will be successful. But is fully urbanizing the area going to be sustainable for 9 or more individual property owners, each having restaurants and stores that need to pay rent fighting for the same audience?"

Wow this actually might be the most rational statement I've seen in Mr Dyer's long-winded "series" on White Flint. Acknowledging the facts, before stating your opinion is the first step in creating a sound argument.

I do agree with you here. There's an enormous amount of available retail square footage available between the White Flint mega-sites: LCOR's North Bethesda Center, JBG’s North Bethesda Market, Lerner/Tower Co.'s White Flint, and Federal Realty's Pike & Rose, not to mention the smaller mixed-use projects scattered around the district (Saul Centers, Gables, Foulger-Pratt etc.) There's also the never-ending collection of strip mall/shopping centers along MD 355 between White Flint and downtown Rockville to compete with (although I would say the newer mixed-use hubs in White Flint have a competitive advantage). It remains to be seen if there's enough retail demand for all of these projects to be successful.

A Wegmans would be a huuugee boost for the mall site though, although even they would still have Whole Foods and Harris Teeter to compete with (which they shouldn't have any trouble doing). Still, there's a finite number of chains that: don't already have a presence in the area, would be willing to pay the hefty rents that these mixed-use centers are certain to charge, and would be willing to put up with all the competition.

In addition, despite the sizeable number of residential projects completed in WF over the past decade, there is still a very long way to go before the area reaches a critical mass of residents. I'm sure the vast majority of patrons frequenting existing retailers/restaurants don't actually live in White Flint, and retailers can't rely on external demand when there's so much competition for their dollars (Westfield Montgomery, Rio/Washingtonian Center/Crown, Rockville Town Center etc.)

Anonymous said...

7:13am I agree with you on this. There's an awful lot of retail being added, and I wonder if the demand is there. Take grocery stores for example -- everyone needs to go grocery shopping, but are all the current stores so overcrowded that we need to increase the number of grocery stores in the area by 1/3rd? Yes, Trader Joe's in Bethesda gets crowded on Saturdays, but that's mostly due to having a tiny location and complicated parking. I've never been to Giant or Whole Foods or Safeway and seen all registers open and lines for all of them.

Heck, the relatively new (remodeled) Safeway at Arlington and Bradley is nearly empty every time I go there. Never once have I had to wait in line to check out.

I guess retailers will just close up if they can't make it work. I hope we don't end up with a sea of vacant retail spaces though.

Robert Dyer said...

6:44: Apparently, you don't know what "grandfathered" means. The footprint of Bloomingdale's is grandfathered to avoid new zoning changes, which were designed by the MoCo political machine to deny residents big box stores and single-use retail.

Wegmans would therefore be able to build a large store at the mall site, without having to go through an additional exception process with the planning board.

Anonymous said...

So you're upset that Wegman's is building there instead of WalMart?

And which Montgomery County residents are crying for "single-use retail"?

Anonymous said...

I'm happy for Wegman's.
But having an urban footprint Wal-Mart somewhere on the Pike wouldn't be bad thing (price competition is good.) The urban Wal-Mart in Tysons is very popular and fits well into a mixed use JBG project. Dare I say, an interior similar to Wegman's.

Will MoCo's draconian alcohol laws allow for beer and wine at the White Flint wegman's?

Anonymous said...

What are the statistics for single use retail demand?

Presumably the developers have data that shows demand. real estate is a market driven industry after all.

Robert Dyer said...

1:43: Walmart wanted to build at Pike Center, not White Flint. I want Walmart and Wegmans.

5:35: Sit outside Walmart in Germantown, watch the literal sea of humanity pouring in and out of that store, and your question of the demand for single-use retail will quickly be answered.

Anonymous said...

When one sees a sea of People of WalMart, the thought is not "humanity", but rather "oh, the humanity!"

Anonymous said...

Safeway is outrageously priced for the quality. That's why it's empty--most of us are smarter than that.

Giant...oh don't get me going. It's like shopping in the former USSR, only with surly employees (if you can find them).

Wegman's offers Whole Foods quality at prices cheaper than Giant. Registers are always open. Shelves are always stocked. It's a pleasure to shop there and the prices are amazing. That's why it will do well despite the so-called competition.

Anonymous said...

What ever happened to the "food desert" imposed by grocery stores to protect their market rings? It seems they have ignored this concept in southwest MoCo for the sake of the wealthy. We will build were we please, and fight it out for survival.

Anonymous said...

@ 7:38 AM - I think you misunderstand what the term "food desert" means. It refers to poor areas where grocery stores do not want to locate at all. It has nothing to do with exclusive lease agreements with shopping centers, or zoning restrictions.

Peter said...

It's about time. White Flint Mall's time was past anyway, and were outmaneuvered by Montgomery Mall, Tyson's, and I would dare say Pentagon City which are all more easily accessible either via highway and/or Metro.

re: Anon @2:15 -- personally I have said before here, it is best dealt with at the state level in Annapolis to unify the liquor laws in the state. They are perceived as draconian only because they deflected responsibility when Prohibition, and have further abdicated responsibility to keep the laws updated since then. I mean, you can buy vodka in Safeway in California, no sense in not being able to do it here too.

re: Anon @8:01 -- yes there is room for the retail, probably because as the new space comes online, retail and other businesses with expiring leases will look to move...which then of course opens other re-development opportunities elsewhere up and down the Pike. My opinion of course.

Peter said...

re: Anon @7:02 -- I would say the first casualty will be Giant. Safeway will still probably hang around because they were bought by Albertsons recently; I'd say the less profitable stores will close but the pockets are a bit deeper now.

Steve D. said...

"Peter said...
re: Anon @7:02 -- I would say the first casualty will be Giant. Safeway will still probably hang around because they were bought by Albertsons recently; I'd say the less profitable stores will close but the pockets are a bit deeper now.

9:44 AM"

Ahold owns Giant, so those pockets are just as deep. Anyway, Giant's got the premium location, they're not going anywhere soon.

Anonymous said...

Should have waited a few more days before mindlessly praising WalMart, Dyer.

They just had their worst stock decline in 27 years this week:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-14/wal-mart-tumbles-after-predicting-drop-in-fiscal-2017-earnings