White Flint mall site plans? (Bethesda, Frederick: construction, school, living)

[Turnerbro]

Just curious. As a new resident to the North Bethesda area. I wonder what the plan is for this dead mall. It seems Pike and Rose pretty much killed it. Lord and Taylor is about to be gone. I just wonder what's in store for it. It's on very valuable land.

[The Very Man Himself]

Unaware of any current plans. Last I heard was that is was one of MoCo's sites for Amazon HQ2. That didn't work. Valuable though the land is, it's small change to the Lerner Co. It might be an eyesore for a while.

[bufflove]

Yeah, there's a decent amount of construction activity in the area (P&R just finished their latest office building, Foulger-Pratt and LCOR each have residential buildings going up just north of the former mall, but as for the mall site itself Lerner seems to just be sitting on it.

I'd imagine they were originally waiting out Lord & Taylor, but now they'll be waiting out economic - particularly office and retail - conditions. I'd guess it'll be a few years down the road before there's enough built up demand to get any meaningful amount of the ~450 acres developed. The only possible spark I see to expedite that timeline is Elrich's push for the area to become the latest MoCo biotech hub, but I'd think that's a bit of a longshot as companies seem fine with 270/aren't outwardly concerned about metro accessibility.

[The Very Man Himself]

The next big development along the Pike is the Twinbrook Quarter, expected to break ground in 2021, and take 30 years to full build out. It will run from Halpine Rd north to the BMW dealership, if not beyond. It has been designated a "champion" development project, whatever that means......

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesd...-in-rockville/

[bufflove]

Originally Posted by The Very Man Himself

It has been designated a "champion" development project, whatever that means......

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesd...-in-rockville/

It was just a new designation the Rockville council made up so the city had an excuse to approve the project even though the requisite school capacity wasn't available. Pretty lame workaround, but most of us were fine with it since the project's such a big improvement over what's currently there and people are obsessed with Wegmans.

[The Very Man Himself]

Originally Posted by bufflove

It was just a new designation the Rockville council made up so the city had an excuse to approve the project even though the requisite school capacity wasn't available. Pretty lame workaround, but most of us were fine with it since the project's such a big improvement over what's currently there and people are obsessed with Wegmans.

Yes, I used to be too. Never had a good experience with their ready to go food, and discovered prices for some of their basics are high. 100 Giant store brand tea bags $2.99, Wegmans $8.99, Aldi $1.98.

[The Very Man Himself]

What happened to White Flint? Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,

What Happened to White Flint? | Seventh State

[Tarheelhombre]

Originally Posted by The Very Man Himself

What happened to White Flint? Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,

What Happened to White Flint? | Seventh State

Excellent article

[pjg66]

Originally Posted by The Very Man Himself

What happened to White Flint? Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,

What Happened to White Flint? | Seventh State

I

For 34 years I lived in Montgomery County a few miles from White Flint. It was my favorite shopping mall and there are many happy memories of my visits there. So this thread caught my eye, and I want to relate some of my memories as to why the County got off track with regard to major job growth.

I was always keenly interested in civic matters so paid close attention to what was going on in the county government. I regularly watched the County Council meetings on cable tv. And a man who played a large part in turning the county away from aggressive recruitment of major new businesses that would provide large numbers of jobs was IMO Neal Potter.

Neal Potter was a highly educated civic activist who was greatly admired in the county. He served 3 terms on the County Council before being elected County Executive in November of 1990. At the time there was an anti-growth, anti-development fervor sweeping the county, which Potter embraced. He defeated incumbent Sidney Kramer, who was very openly pro-business.

The following article appeared in the Washington Post on June 24, 1991. Titled "Neal Potter's Uninviting Growth Policy", it is a fascinating read on Potter's attitude toward additional growth and development.

http://washingtonpost.com/archive/bu...-7e025238584a/

Two examples stand out. When General Dynamics announced that it intended to move its headquarters to the Washington suburbs, according to the article Potter made it clear that they would not be welcome in Montgomery County (I believe they went to Virginia). And when Mobil Corp. established its headquarters in Fairfax County, Potter stated that Montgomery was "lucky" not to have them. He said the County didn't need any corporations like Mobil.

Although Potter had some good progressive ideas about a lot of things, I think he helped the County gain a reputation as anti-business. And in that respect, IMO he did the County a great disservice.

Anyway, I thought some of you might like to see part of the historical context for things discussed in this thread. Though no longer a resident, I wish Montgomery County a bright and prosperous future.

[bufflove]

Very interesting. A sizeable chunk of the county's population is still overtly anti-business and, unfortunately, their preferred politician (County Executive Marc "I prefer to put jobs in Frederick" Elrich) has been in power for the last couple years.

I understand the point of view: many retirees or people who already have secure, high-paying jobs only see additional growth as more traffic, more school kids, etc. and not something that would benefit them directly. That hundreds of thousands of MoCo residents struggle to pay the county's cost of living or have to commute two hours a day back and forth from VA to find a well-paying job isn't even on their radar.

That said, the author of the Seventh State summary is exaggerating quite a bit. "Developers are not currently willing to build speculative office projects in Montgomery County due to the lack of underlying job growth and the uncertainty about the future of the office sector" is just factually untrue: there are millions of sqft in spec office space in MoCo currently under construction or going through the approval process. The problem is that spec construction overwhelmingly occurs in just a couple of county submarkets (downtown Bethesda and 270 biotech corridor). Elrich and his NIMBY supporters aren't able to scuttle all growth in the county, but they are severely reinforcing the wealth and job divide between west and east county. The rich keep getting richer and working class areas are being screwed - an ultimate irony considering Elrich is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and claims to be pro-working class.

As for White Flint, specifically, I think it's fine that growth has come slower than expected (outside Pike & Rose taking off like a rocket ship - good job, Federal Realty). Downtown Bethesda has seen extraordinary redevelopment growth the last few years in response to its sector plan being reworked. That developers have put WF on the backburner and jumped on closer-in county projects, instead, isn't particularly problematic. It's not a matter of there being something wrong with the WF submarket, it's just a matter of being patient. WF/Twinbrook will continue to see incremental growth and that is likely to increase in speed once obvious redevelopment candidates in Bethesda are completed.