MONTGOMERY MALL
Westlake Drive and Westlake Terrace
Montgomery County (Bethesda), Maryland
Two major shopping malls opened in Greater Washington, DC during 1968; MONTGOMERY MALL, in Montgomery County, Maryland, and TYSONS CORNER CENTER, in Fairfax County, Virginia.
MONTGOMERY MALL was developed a 59.4-acre plot. This was located 16 miles northwest of the United States Capitol, near an unincorporated section of Montgomery County known as Bethesda. The mall site was adjacent to the Interstate 270 expressway, which -in the present day- is signed as the Interstate 270 Spur.
A regional retail complex had been envisaged by Bethesda surgeon Dr. John H. Solomon. Planning and design was underway by 1963. However, Solomon and his backers were unable to raise sufficient venture capital. In 1965, the project was taken over by a joint venture of St. Louis-based May Centers and Philadelphia's Strouse, Greenberg & Company.
The prospective shopping hub, now known as MONTGOMERY MALL, was designed by Seattle's John Graham, Junior and Springfield, Virginia's Ward & Hall firm. An official dedication was held on March 6, 1968. At this time, the complex encompassed approximately 850,000 leasable square feet.
Original anchors were a 2-level (151,700 square foot), Arlington, Virginia-based Hecht's, 2-level (90,000 square foot), Washington-based Garfinckel's and 2-level (150,000 square foot) Sears. There were fifty-eight inline stores. Charter tenants included Bond Clothes, Lerner Shops, Peoples Drug, Corset World, Nye Jewelers, Waldenbooks and an F.W. Woolworth 5 & 10. The Colonial-themed "Georgetown Row" encompassed eight eighteenth century-motif boutiques.
A DC-based Woodward & Lothrop was to anchor a future expansion of the mall "within 3 to 5 years." Completion of the 2-level (150,000 square foot) store would actually take 8. The MONTGOMERY MALL "Woodies" opened on March 25, 1976. It was built along with a forty-store North Wing. A multilevel parking garage, jutting out from the northwest corner of the mall, had been constructed. Hecht's had also been enlarged -to 217,000 square feet- with a new, 2-level parking deck connecting to that store's south and west entrances.
Major shopping hubs in the MONTGOMERY MALL trade area included WHEATON PLAZA (1960) {4.7 miles northeast, in Montgomery County}, WHITE FLINT (1977) {2.1 miles northeast, also in Montgomery County} and LAKE FOREST MALL (1978) {9.2 miles northwest, in Gaithersburg}.
In the mid-1980s, a small addition was built west of the MONTGOMERY MALL Woodward & Lothrop. It included the K-B Theatres Montgomery Mall 3, which showed first features on January 18, 1985. Over the next 29 years, the tri-plex would operate under the K-B, Cineplex Odeon, Loews, AMC and P & G Theatres banners.
Meanwhile, MONTGOMERY MALL had been eclipsed by a late 1980s expansion of Virginia's TYSONS CORNER CENTER. As a keeping up measure, an addition to MONTGOMERY MALL was planned. This would be built in the south parking area and include Nordstrom as an anchor. The plan was met with a great deal of community opposition, with Nordstrom pulling out of the project.
Things were eventually smoothed over. Nordstrom was reinstated and construction was underway by 1990. The South Wing was originally designed to cut through the existing mall on one side of Garfinckel's. With the shuttering of Garfinckel's, in June 1990, the plan was altered. The vacant Garfinckel's was gutted and the new shopping concourse built through the store space. A multilevel parking garage was added to the southeast corner of the complex, connected via skybridge to Sears and Nordstrom.
Woodward & Lothrop had been shuttered on November 10, 1995. J.C. Penney opened in the space on July 20, 1996. This operation lasted until March 2001. With Penney's closing, the first level of the building was divided into fourteen inline stores, including Old Navy, American Eagle Outfitters and Shenk & Tittle. The second level was reconfigured as a (75,800 square foot) Hecht's Home Store, which opened in October 2001.
The Federated-May merger of August 2005 resulted in the dissolution of the Hecht's chain. Stores, including the two at WESTFIELD MONTGOMERY, re-opened under the Macy's masthead on August 25, 2006.
A plan to expand WESTFIELD MONTGOMERY by 500,000 square feet had been put forth by Westfield in 2004. A concave, lifestyle-format component was proposed for the north parking area. This was to extend between the existing Sears and Hecht's stores and partially surround open "common area". The 350 million dollar "Fashion Wing" addition would be populated by various upscale boutiques and bistros, with a new parking area -and megaplex cinema- included in the project.
WESTLAKE TERRACE, an existing strip center, and the Sears Auto Center (at the northeast corner of the property) were to be demolished. Apparently, the new construction would have also required demolition of the mall's northwest parking garage. As had been the case in the late 1980s, the plan for a mall expansion was opposed by local citizens. Westfield decided to drop the provision for a new megaplex cinema, with the square footage of the addition being reduced to 360,000. The altered plan was approved in January 2005.
The Great Recession slammed the brakes on any reworking of the mall for the time being. Plans for a scaled-down renovation surfaced in early 2012. This included provisions for a Dining Terrace, similar to installations at WESTFIELD CENTURY CITY {in Los Angeles} and WESTFIELD SOUTHCENTER {in Washington State}.
Work got underway on the 90 million dollar refurbishment in 2013. The Boulevard Cafes section was gutted. A state-of-the-art ArcLight Cinemas Bethesda 16-plex was built on top of the northwest parking garage, which overlooked a new Dining Terrace. Food vendors included Cava Mezze Grill, Naples 45 Ristorante e Pizzeria and MET Bethesda. These opened for business between August 2014 and May 2015. The new cinema showed first features on October 23, 2014.
Alas, some of the upscale Dining Terrace eateries were short-lived. MET Bethesda served its final meals in September 2016. Naples 45 Ristorante e Pizzeria went dark in January 2017. In May, Sears sold its 49-year-old store and Auto Center to Westfield.
A closure notice was filed with the state of Maryland in January 2018, but was immediately retracted. Sears Holdings announced that said closure was filed accidentally and that the WESTFIELD MONTGOMERY store would remain in business. Nonetheless, the store closed for good on March 31, 2019.
Meanwhile, Westfield's American and European property portfolio was merged into the holdings of Paris-based Unibail-Rodamco in June 2018. A new company, known as Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield was created. Westfield shopping centers in Australia and New Zealand were not included in the merger.
In June 2018, Westfield announced plans for the demolition and redevelopment of a vacant WESTFIELD MONTGOMERY Sears. It was to be replaced by a trendy "lifestyle destination." This would be built in three phases and include 213,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, 717 residential units, a hotel, outdoor ice rink, parking garage and Life Time Athletic fitness facility. The project reached an impasse in September 2019, after county officials placed a moratorium on new housing.
Sources:
The Washington Post
http://archives.ubalt.edu / Montgomery Mall
http://www.montgomeryplanningboard.org
http://www.westfield.com / The Westfield Corporation (website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
http://www.cinematreasures.org
http://www.eyecorp.com
http://www.bethesdamagazine.com
http://www.reuters.com
