Lord & Taylor Remains Open as White Flint Closes

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Rockville Pike’s White Flint Mall has closed, but holdout Lord & Taylor – which has battled in court with the defunct mall’s owners -- remains open for business.

Mall owners Lerner Enterprises and the Tower Cos., both of Rockville, plan to demolish the mall and build a town center-style retail site.

Patch reported in March 2014 that a federal appeals court rejected an appeal by Lord & Taylor seeking financial damages and to delay the mall’s demolition and redevelopment as a town center. The retailer claimed the mall’s owners broke a longstanding agreement requiring White Flint to be maintained as a “first-class high fashion regional shopping center” by letting most of the mall’s tenants close and partially demolishing the property.

White Flint’s owners want to convert the property into a 5.2 million-square-foot mixed-use development. The owners have denied Lord & Taylor’s allegations and say the retailer is only trying to extract a larger settlement from them.

Lord & Taylor is expected to remain open during construction of the new center, Gazette.Net reports.

Planners approved an outline for redevelopment in 2012, the news site says, but more detailed site plans must be submitted and approved before construction can begin. After redevelopment, the owners plan to call the complex simply White Flint.

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