Owner and legendary tailor Eduardo DePandi was a fixture at White Flint Mall for decades, a mall so upscale that Elizabeth Taylor was part of the opening ceremonies. When Lerner inexplicably pulled the plug not long after touting the mall was fully-leased, and when the mall's parking lots and popular restaurants were packed, DePandi was forced to find a new home. Lerner's epic greed ended up only leaving an overgrown lot where the demolished mall once stood, as the developer was successfully sued for a fortune by Lord & Taylor, and Amazon famously passed on the property for its HQ 2.
DePandi made what seemed like a very logical move - to what was once called "Montgomery County's Rodeo Drive," the main drag of Wisconsin Avenue in Friendship Heights. But a surge of wealthy Montgomery County residents fleeing the County left the once-gleaming fashion mecca of Chevy Chase looking like a bombed-out slum of empty storefronts, outdated apartments, and smashed-out bus shelters. DePandi announced it would close.
But the shop suddenly made a lateral move into the worst-hit property of the former "Rodeo Drive," the Collection at Chevy Chase. The rich continued to escape for lower-tax jurisdictions as the County Council hiked taxes to a record, all-time high. Despite the highly-touted makeover, new retail and restaurant tenants have so far failed to sign on to the Collection's rebirth. Instead, now even DePandi is leaving.
A primary boast Montgomery County used to make to the local press was that the wealthy clientele who supported the expensive shops of Chevy Chase spent big regardless of boom and bust cycles. But if they don't live here anymore, that spending is taking place elsewhere now. The only thing more shocking about the cratering of our former Rodeo Drive in Chevy Chase has been the latest Council's failure to take a single action to stop the hemorrhaging of wealthy residents and jobs, or to improve the County's famously-hostile business climate, since it took office over two months ago. Heckuva job, Brownie!
38 comments:
I’m pretty sure the "rich are fleeing Montgomery County") because MoCo did not legally require an urban cinema at the Apex site.
5:37: No, they were leaving long before that bonehead decision.
Don’t be silly, Anna. The rich are fleeing Montgomery County because Hans Reimer personally put all 2,100 Payless stores nationwide out of business.
Has Dyer ever cited any statistics showing there are fewer wealthy people living in the county compared to years prior?
5:51: Montgomery County fell off the Top 10 Richest Counties in America list a long time ago. Meanwhile, Loudoun is now #1 on that list, and it's joined by Arlington, Fairfax, the independent city of Falls Church and Howard County (which is now richer than Montgomery County).
#Ouch
I've also previously posted the data on not only which counties our rich residents fled to, but the precise amount of revenue they took with them.
If this county disappoints you so, why stay?
6:11: More troubling, perhaps, is why you are not disappointed by its decline - economy, schools, transportation - as much as I am? We used to be number one across the board, and I've done all I can to convince people we need to change direction so we can be again. As a lifelong resident, I care about my community.
I am also a life-long resident of the area. What makes you think I'm not disappointed? Just because I have different concerns, see different reasons and would rather focus on different solutions than you doesn't mean I don't care.
Still waiting for your list of how to fix, not just complain.
"We're the best! MoCo is a Utopia, nothing to fix."
Well, Jeff Bezos certainly doesn't agree.
"MoCo is a Utopia, nothing to fix."
Who actually said this?
#ShiftChange
Wish we had more diverse opinions and voices, not less much needed in our government, yet folks response if someone is pointing out problems is to move out of the county. Makes no sense.
If there was at least one, independent voice on the Council we might be able to find out things like how much we were played by Amazon. How much internal data was handed over and what specifically was it?
DePandi must be in his 70s or 80s by now. Sure he didn't just want to retire?
9:16: The signs say "Moving Sale," so it suggests he intends to open somewhere else.
The Chevy Chase Land Company kicked all of the retailers out, most of them didn't move of their own accord.
This also isn't a Montgomery County thing. You should do an article on all of the high-end retailers that are leaving Fairfax Square in Tysons.
Under Fairfax Square:
"An 8-screen movie theater closed in 2007."
LOL
De Pandi has been going out of business for over a year now.
http://robertdyer.blogspot.com/2018/01/ralph-lauren-closes-in-chevy-chase-as.html
Fumbling the ball with Amazon, the Council cost us billions in revenue and 25,000 new jobs for our people.
They've been quiet in 2019 so far. What will they do for an encore?
The Montgomery Way.. Sanctuary for illegals and net takers of services, while the wealthy taxed to death paying for all of it leave. Sounds sustainable..
@ 11:58 AM - Odd that Dyer forgot about his own report on that 13 months ago. Is he just running out of content, or going senile?
5:02 PM Thanks, but Dyer broke the story of Lebanese Taverna downsizing in Rockville many days ago.
Stay in your lane.
6:20PM, really? Many days ago? I must have missed it. Where?
9:33: Wrong! Why would you kick out rent-paying tenants? And they brought in DePandi even after many of those other high-end stores had moved out. The stores closed because there aren't enough wealthy people left in the County to sustain them anymore. The moribundity is now spreading to other town centers like Bethesda Row and Rockville Town Square, with new tenants like tire stores and LensCrafters(!).
5:04: If I'm going senile, so is the "young" Beto O'Rourke, to use the adjective the Washington Post's Kathleen Parker deployed in her recent column. Is Geritol donating to Beto's campaign?
Beto doesn't have a campaign, yet.
Your envy of him is cute.
5:19: Where have I expressed "envy" of Beto?
You brought his name up out of nowhere in replying to 5:04
You used quotes for "young."
Your mention of a Post writer's article about Beto.
Our previous discussion of why Beto is young and you are old, even tho you are only one year older than Beto.
And of course, the rampant whataboutism you employ on this site instead of directly answering.
Robert Dyer is right to focus on our poor record in attracting jobs, especially since it shows no sign of changing. No-one seems to dispute his analysis, judging from the fact that 90% of the comments on this and similar stories are irrelevant to the issue.
As long as the developers and the public-sector unions maintain their stranglehold on Montgomery County, we will never be able to compete with Fairfax County as a business-friendly location. We have to find another way.
Biotech is potentially a comparative advantage for us. I haven't been able to find any update since last May on the planned biotech building at 7900 Wisconsin Ave. Let's hope it's getting enough leases to begin construction as planned this Fall.
Will the wide sidewalks and attractive urban ambiance promised by the Downtown Plan make us a magnet? Can we reverse the shocking decline in our previously stellar schools?
Office space is set to grow rapidly so we will find out if there is latent demand.
I wish I could see some more positive factors, and perhaps other commentators can suggest some. Unfortunately we will be battling headwinds as the billion-dollar overrun on building the Purple Line becomes evident, subsidies needed to operate the Purple Line prove far higher than projected, Montgomery County's disproportionate share of these overruns kicks in, and taxes go up permanently to fund
this expensive gift to landowners and developers.
Not sure what the Texas 2018 Senatorial candidate, and potential 2020 Vice-presidential candidate, has to do with your failure to remember that you wrote about De Pandi's closure over a year ago, Dyer.
"Dyer broke the story of Lebanese Taverna downsizing in Rockville many days ago.
Stay in your lane."
Wrong. Dyer failed to report that both the closure of Lebanese Taverna's Bethesda Row restaurant, and the move of their Congressional Plaza restaurant to a smaller site, are because of their decision to change to a "fast-casual" format for all their locations.
8:16: You're dead wrong. They didn't close their Bethesda location because of a format change. What's correct is that I was the first to report on the new downsized Congressional space and new concept and menu. There have been some other reports since mine, but I broke the story.
8:13: That was their other location, dumbass.
So where is this elusive report on the down-sizing?
I asked about it earlier and never got an answer:
"6:20PM, really? Many days ago? I must have missed it. Where? "
8:40PM - Thank you! I should have known, but I didn't want to go off clicking willy-nilly.
I did go read it, and you're right, no LEBTAV mention. In the last picture, you can see both locations, old and new.
4:06: Wrong! My article reported the downsizing first. Other articles followed mine, inspired by my report. Hopefully they cited me or gave a hat tip as the source for this previously unknown information regarding the smaller location and menu. Your desperation shows in the fact that you've had to go off-topic on this Skid Row Chevy Chase article to talk about yet another one of my scoops on another successful website.
Nope. Not wrong. Actually I was completely factual.
Are you not able to read and comprehend?
I specifically said "no LEBTAV" mentioned. That's it.
I thanked a now deleted post for telling me where to read this mysterious article that was not on this blog.
The "desperation" you reference is quite a projection on your part.
You're just really bizarre. you spend an inordinate amount of time analyzing people's motives and seeing conspiracies where none exist.
It's like you get up each day, ready to consume yourself with all the ways life's done you wrong.
Weird.
I also noted that in the last picture, both old and new locations could be seen.
But, did I get a hat-tip for pointing that out? Nope. Am I gonna get all pissy and complain about it?
Here's a tip for you. Cutting thru a neighborhood to get to Tuckerman, I saw a beautiful, large, pristinely clean yellow CRANE. Looks like a new school being built.
You might enjoy checking it out, you know, crane and all. corner of Tilden and Marcliff Lanes. You're welcome.
6:16: No, the post was deleted as spam attempting to promote a competing website that posted after I broke the story. A number of fake "allies" who posed as concerned activists on various issues certainly "did me wrong" in the recent election, as did the crooked MoCo cartel, and colluding Washington Post and cartel-controlled civic organizations. That's just the reality of me entering the arena to try and save our very corrupt County from a cartel that has billions of dollars at stake in the outcome.
It's not "weird," it's just a fact that criminals exist and will always try to take advantage of citizens if they don't fight back.
Once again, you are focusing on what you "think" I'm saying rather than what I am saying.
I wasn't commenting on WHY the post was deleted. I was commenting on FINALLY someone told me where to find the article. And I agreed with it not mentioning "LEBTAV" That's it. No other comments about content. All that is something you dreamed up.
Here's a novel idea...why don't you read my comments for what THEY actually say.
Accept the fact that the only time I'm posting is under my name. Period.
"Skid Row Chevy Chase"
I think that the 300 employees of WTOP who just moved to that block would disagree with your characterization of it.
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