White Flint Mall Litigation - Lord & Taylor Sues to Halt Bethesda/Rockville Redevelopment Project; Mall Files Counterclaim for $1 Billion.

Litigation regarding the redevelopment of the White Flint Mall site is underway in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.  The outcome of the case could significantly affect the planned redevelopment of the North Bethesda/Kensington/Rockville, Maryland area in which the Mall has operated for more than 30 years.

Lord & Taylor has sued the owner of that mall (White Flint Mall, LLLP – which in turn is owned by the Lerner Enterprises and related persons and entities) alleging that the redevelopment of the site is in violation of a Reciprocal Easement Agreement (“REA”). The Mall has filed a counterclaim against Lord & Taylor alleging that the department store is wrongfully interfering with the redevelopment of the site.

Lord & Taylor’s argument is that the REA precludes White Flint from changing the building and site without Lord & Taylor’s permission. Lord & Taylor is seeking specific enforcement of the REA, and a halt to the redevelopment.

White Flint is seeking One Billion Dollars ($1,000,000,000.00) from Lord & Taylor in damages on grounds that Lord & Taylor has gone along with the redevelopment and not objected to it until the redevelopment was already underway.

In the meantime, the mall is nearly empty. Only a handful of stores remain and anchor tenant Bloomingdales’ building was demolished earlier this year. 

The Greenberg Traurig firm represents Lord & Taylor.  Katten Muchin Rosenman represents White Flint Mall. The judge assigned to the case is Roger W. Titus, and the case number is 8:13-cv-01912-RWT. Copies of the pleadings are available on PACER for a fee. If you don’t have PACER access, let me know and I may be able to email you copies of the documents.