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.
The former site of White Flint Mall has been reclaimed by nature. Several years have passed since the mall was demolished, and now it is an overgrown field guarded by hyperaggressive security. Perhaps they fear a giant rabbit may jump the fence and munch on the vegetation. The heady greed that led the owners to pull the plug on a fully-leased mall, with crowded parking lots and popular restaurants, has dissipated. Replacing it is stagnation and malaise. And lots of weeds.
Yet our elected officials have decided to simply put a piece of carpet tape over the "Check Engine" light screaming at them from the civic dashboard. It's intriguing that Lerner is compelled to provide entertainment for the public on a future development site they own in bustling Tysons, but here the Council allows them to leave us an overgrown field. That says a lot about the difference between the two jurisdictions, and the competency of their respective leadership.
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| This stretch of Rockville Pike looks exactly the same as it did over nine years ago, when the White Flint sector plan passed |
34 comments:
I appreciate your coverage of the County's economy, but I'd appreciate it more if you would try using synonyms for the overused "moribund", please. The "I told you so" vibe is strong here. We get it.
This would have been a good spot for pop up events, such as a temporary summer drive-in theater, Oktoberfest, etc.
Lerner and the local civic orgs should use some creativity given how long this open space has been there.
Looking forward to Dyer's series on "The Dark Side of Landmark Mall".
Or "The Dark Side of Macy's at the Tysons Galleria".
8:53 AM Did anyone think they were going to keep two full Macy's operating in malls across the street from each other?
@ 8:59 AM -
Well, they managed to do just that, for 13 years.
Seems like it would have been better if they had moved Bloomingdales out of Tysons I to the Macy's site back then. It would have been a better fit for both malls.
9:02: STFU SOY BOY
9:04 AM Agree and yes, they've had this arrangement for awhile post Hecht Company being merged into Macy's. Made more sense when it was Hecht's in Tysons Corner Center and Macy's in Galleria.
Meanwhile, Lord & Taylor continues to operate, even refreshing some of the departments recently.
@ 08:35 - Or "The Dark Side of Nordstrom's at Dulles Town Center".
Even being next to Dulles Airport is not enough to prevent moribundity.
Skippy -
The future of the entire Lord & Taylor's chain is very uncertain at this time. They recently sold their Fifth Avenue store to WeWork. The owner, Hudson's Bay Company, which also owns Saks Fifth Avenue, is exploring selling the chain.
And three stores in this region in particular are at risk of closure - the one in White Flint, the one in Chevy Chase DC (which is near the Saks Fifth Avenue store), and the one in Dulles Town Center. The store in Lakeforest will close on September 5.
I look forward to the closing of the White Flint store. It will be just desserts for their blocking the redevelopment of the mall site.
More green space! Yay!
A forest of beautiful trees would be perfect for the environment!
This was a Pizza Hut. Now it's all covered in daisies!
"It's intriguing that Lerner is compelled to provide entertainment for the public on a future development site they own in bustling Tysons."
Where does it say this in the article?
And what would you propose that the County do to remedy the situation at the White Flint Mall site? Evict Lord & Taylor?
However this was interesting:
"Michael Caplin, president of the Tysons Partnership, a marketing group formed by area developers, said it’s no surprise that the area is adding more attractions now that more people are living in Tysons. Three 400-unit apartment buildings opened in the past 18 months, bringing hundreds of new residents to the area."
@ 11:57 PM - You're thinking of Sbarro's (which was actually on the second floor), LOL. The Hut is over on Nicholson.
Tysons has Cirque du Soleil for a two month run; North Bethesda had a "one man circus" for two nights
Waiting for the Sierra Club to place an endangered bug/animal on the site like they did to delay the construction of the ICC. Wonder if Dyer is a member?
Just saw an ad for Uber on another Montgomery County blog. Love the way Robert spins the fact no business will buy ad space on his little blogs as a good thing.
Funny and pathetic all at the same time.
2:01pm When your content sucks, I guess you tout your banner ads instead. LOL
I got a Peloton ad, among others, when watching Dyer's Silver Diner Rio video.
Peloton sponsoring Dyer's video content makes sense given his coverage of Bethesda.
2:24 PM Great, and only, video first look. And sponsored by Peloton!
2:38 PM Try telling that to all of the adults he's inspired to spend so much time at mall food courts, driving up and down strip malls looking for signs, etc. LOL
No other local content creator has sponsors like Peloton. Robert is reaching their type of customer. No surprise given how affluent and active Dyer's readership is.
"No other local content creator has sponsors like Peloton. Robert is reaching their type of customer. No surprise given how affluent and active Dyer's readership is."
YouTube advertising sponsors and recipients don't necessarily choose each other. YouTube assigns them randomly. YouTube ads are primarily for the benefit of YouTube (i.e. Google).
And this still doesn't answer the question of why Dyer can't get any paid ads on any of his SNN blogs.
And there is no documentation of Dyer's readership numbers, let alone how Dyer "knows" that they are supposedly greater than other local sites. However based on Facebook activity, Dyer's readership appears to be in the low hundreds while other local news sites are mostly in the tens of thousands.
3:52pm YouTube sponsors are definitely not "random". Dyer has Peloton and others sponsoring his content.
These are premium brands.
Why would Peloton voluntarily support someone like Robert Dyer who has never exercised in his life and subsists on a diet of junk food?
4:13pm you made a bunch of inaccurate statements without evidence.
It's all about Dyer's premium content and premium audience for Peloton.
"Dyer's premium content"
Watching a partially-chewed chicken nugget fall out of Dyer's mouth as he babbles on his zero-affect, nasal monotone.
4:28pm we get it. You don't like the video and you've posted the same lame insults several times already this week.
But you're in the minority based in YouTube likes. And Silver Diner, Peloton, etc love it. Letting folks know about a new restaurant in MoCo.
YouTube is for illiterates.
"YouTube advertising sponsors and recipients don't necessarily choose each other. YouTube assigns them randomly. YouTube ads are primarily for the benefit of YouTube (i.e. Google)."
Not just sponsors and recipients, but viewers as well. Two people viewing the same video don't necessarily receive the same ads.
Again, YouTube ads are not "randomly" shown. Google does nothing "random" when it comes to ads. Location and who your audience is matters.
They are targeted based on your data. Everyone sees different ads and videos.
Dear 1058 Anonymous:
Skippy is right and I bet Lerner is kicking themselves
L&T didnt block the redevelopment.
Lerner could have redeveloped with L&T as anchor and refused!
Lerner made the contract in 1975 with L&T "to maintain a 1st class mall thru 2042" and Lerner didnt when Bloomingdales closed, DaveBuster was evicted, PFChang closed.
Lerner didnt even have guaranteed funding but wanted L&T to close!
And look at it now 4 years later NO CONSTRUCTION!
Lerner doesnt think the hotel, office buildings it wants to build, and the 2,500 apts it wants to build would enjoy shopping @ L&T?
Lerner fvked up. Both District and Circuit court correctly found in L&T's favour, thus Lerner having to pay L&T $31,000,000( 31 million $)!
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
10:58 AM Skippy -
The future of the entire Lord & Taylor's chain is very uncertain at this time. They recently sold their Fifth Avenue store to WeWork. The owner, Hudson's Bay Company, which also owns Saks Fifth Avenue, is exploring selling the chain.
And three stores in this region in particular are at risk of closure - the one in White Flint, the one in Chevy Chase DC (which is near the Saks Fifth Avenue store), and the one in Dulles Town Center. The store in Lakeforest will close on September 5.
I look forward to the closing of the White Flint store. It will be just desserts for their blocking the redevelopment of the mall site.
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