The Ghost of White Flint Mall speaks! (Video + photos)

The Dark Side of White Flint, Part 43

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.

A spooky message from
beyond the grave from
the ghost of White Flint Mall

Some paranormal investigators believe that ghosts cannot communicate with the material world unless they have a medium of communication, such as an electronic device. Even Thomas Edison tried to create a ghost radio to speak to the dead. Recently, the ghost of White Flint Mall appeared to commandeer the mall's old digital sign, and send a garbled message to us all, and I captured it on film.

There's nothing on the site now but a field, after the mall that was fully-leased at the time its owners announced it would be demolished was finally razed. The "town center" project that the owners gambled on is now in development hell, and they must pay Lord & Taylor a whopping $31 million for breaking their contract with the upscale department store, which is the only portion of the mall still in operation.

What message was the mall trying to send us? Stay tuned.

"Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say, 

Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death,

And prophesying with accents terrible

Of dire combustion and confused events."

White Flint Mall site cleared after demolition (Photos)

The Dark Side of White Flint, Part 42

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.

Piles of what rubble remained of the grand White Flint Mall have been cleared from the mall property. The 1977 building, fully-leased and still modern in its design, had the plug pulled by the property owner. What does the future hold?

"White Flint offers the same glamorous showcase for big-league shopping that the Kennedy Center provides for performing arts"

- The Washington Post

November 2, 1981

Currently, they are embroiled in a lawsuit with Lord & Taylor, which remains in operation on the site. All of the demolition and abandoned appearance of the overall property surely has taken a financial toll on Lord & Taylor's foot traffic. Bravo to the department store for doing all it could to stop the demolition. The gamble the mall's former owners have taken is that residential mixed-use development will be a sure success on this site.

"'It's a stop on the circuit if you want to see Washington,' says Joel Rosenberg, whose store, Cedar Post, at White Flint is done in a turn-of-the-century warehouse decor featuring belt-driven ceiling fans. 'You go to the White House, the Washington Monument, and then White Flint.'"

- The Washington Post

November 2, 1981

With at least 9 other town centers now operating or in the works within a few miles of the former mall site, and Federal Realty already in Phase 2 of completing its Pike & Rose development a few blocks "up the Pike," that gamble is anything but a sure bet. A better one might have been to simply build the rumored Wegmans on the footprint of the demolished Bloomingdale's wing, use the parking lot around the mall to develop residential and retail buildings, and keep the mall with its movie theater, popular dining options, and upscale shopping.

"The air smells like money. To wander the marble-chip walkways is to drift in a flow of stylish humanity."

- The Washington Post

November 2, 1981

Now, we'll never know. But fans of the mall will continue to keep its spirit alive - and don't forget, the Lord & Taylor building is technically what remains of White Flint Mall. Next time you're heading out to a department store, why not give them your business as a show of support?

“But let it be. Horatio, I am dead;  

  Thou livest; report me and my cause aright

  To the unsatisfied.”

Lord & Taylor is all
that remains, its arched
entrance hinting at
the grand architecture
that's been demolished
around it

Travel back in time with
selected chapters of
The Dark Side of White Flint:

White Flint Mall now a pile of rubble - December 23, 2015

Dave and Busters closes at White Flint Mall - August 14, 2014

AMC Loews White Flint 5 cineplex closes - February 17, 2014

No more fresh-baked cookies - February 18, 2014

"Walk yourself through the feelings" - January 6, 2014

"It's like a ghost town in here!!" - July 11, 2013

The Dark Side of White Flint - March 18, 2013

White Flint Mall demolition update (Photos)

The Dark Side of White Flint, Part 39

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.

Demolition continues at White Flint Mall.

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!

White Flint Mall demolition begins (Photos)

The Dark Side of White Flint, Part 36

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.

White Flint Mall's doors have been locked since the first week of January, and now the actual demolition process of the officially-dead mall is underway. The mall structure has been fenced off, and a number of windows have been smashed out. They appear to be working on the interior of the building at this point.

More trips to the Dark Side:

White Flint Mall sign goes dark, P.F. Chang's stripped

Lights out for White Flint Mall's social media accounts

Dave and Buster's closes at White Flint Mall

WHAT'S STILL OPEN AT WHITE FLINT MALL (PHOTOS)

The Dark Side of White Flint, Part 24

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.

In the last two installments, we've talked about the latest closures at White Flint Mall. What many want to know is, what is still open at White Flint Mall?

The list is quite short: Lord and Taylor, P.F. Chang's, Dave and Buster's, Khoury Brothers, Rochelle Hackley DDS, and the U.S. Post Office. A whopping 6 tenants.

An examination of the April 2013 mall directory, compared to the February 2014 directory, is simply stunning. Remember, the mall was fully-leased, and it was hard to get a close-by parking space for the Cheesecake Factory and other popular dining spots, when the owners pulled the plug. This was never a mismanaged, failing mall:

April 2013

February 2014

GHOST TOWN: THE DARK SIDE OF WHITE FLINT, PART 13 (PHOTOS)

Click here to read Part 12, and find links to more White Flint Mall demolition photo galleries.

† † † † †

As I stood in front of the shuttered Bertucci's restaurant in dying White Flint Mall, two young women passed behind me. Surveying the empty corridors, one said, "It's like a ghost town in here!"

The winding-down mall's customer traffic is best measured with a PKE Meter these days.

Is it a zombie movie set, or a successful mall turned into retail haunted house overnight by an operator eager to cash in on speculative real estate profits?

Check out this photo gallery, and decide for yourself:

MORE CLOSURES AT WHITE FLINT MALL (PHOTOS)

The Dark Side of White Flint
Part 12:

Welcome to the latest installment of The Dark Side of White Flint, a candid examination of the not-so-wonnerful, wonnerful, wonnerful side of urbanizing the suburbs in Montgomery County. Click here to read Part 11: Bertucci's, and find links to past installments, and demolition photo galleries.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The latest stores to close at dying White Flint Mall are Expressions Hallmark, and White Flint Custom Tailor. Yesterday, I reported the closure of a major restaurant tenant, Bertucci's.

Expressions Hallmark began clearance sales at 20% this spring, 40% in May, and 75% off in the final weeks. Alas, the bell has now tolled, and no more Keepsake Ornaments will be purchased at White Flint Mall. Why does this matter? Collectors of the ornaments can tell you that ornaments sold out at Montgomery Mall, for example, might still be found at White Flint or Tysons Corner. Now that extra local inventory is lost, resulting in more driving, which is the opposite of what we were told the White Flint urbanization would do for the environment.

SCENES FROM FINAL HOURS OF 3 WHITE FLINT MALL STORES (PHOTOS)

The Dark Side of White Flint:
Part 8

Witness Montgomery County retail history, in these exclusive photos of 3 businesses, taken in their last hours before closing at the dying White Flint Mall in North Bethesda.

At Gap, as you can see in the photo below, the sales floor was already being cleared of merchandise. Later,  boxes would be stacked inside.

At Easy Spirit, you can see the boxes stacked inside.

Both are closed permanently.

The news is not so bad for fans of Bertram's Inkwell, pictured below as it wound down operations at White Flint:

Not only is Bertram's moving to a new location, but it is right across the street from White Flint Mall.

The new Bertram's store is at 11300 Rockville Pike, in One Central Plaza.

Bertram's new location should open this week. I'll be sure to pass it along when it does.

Bertram's Inkwell holds the distinction of being one of the oldest tenants at White Flint, where it opened in 1985.

All 3 stores' White Flint spaces have been stripped of signage, like so many other shops now closed in the mall.