The Death of a Shopping Icon: Lakeforest Mall's Final Hours

Lakeforest Mall - Death of an iconic mall!

Welcome to Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Today is its last day of life and only has hours remaining. I am feeling like I am visiting a distant relative I never really knew. Paying respects as they leave this world. Can you believe this food court used to be an ice skating rink with bleachers that could hold hundreds of onlookers?

Why do I do this? There are a number of reasons. I started to enjoy editing videos. I started enjoying trying to replicate what I would see others do. For years I had been watching videos from people such as Sal and Ace's Adventures as well as Dan Bell. I grew up working retail and was saddened seeing malls disappear. They inspired me to start documenting malls around me and to preserve their memories for future generations.

Lakeforest Mall first opened on September 12, 1978. At that time, the mall's anchor stores were JCPenney, Sears, Woodward & Lothrop, and Hecht's. The mall was named in honor of Lake Walker, a man-made lake and park on the property prior. The mall was one of the first in the United States to feature an indoor ice skating rink on the lower level, in the "H section", along with being the biggest indoor shopping mall in the county at the time of grand opening.

In 1984, the ice rink was replaced by a NTI Theaters movie theater, later renamed Cineplex Odeon Lakeforest 5. In 1995, the Woodward & Lothrop at the mall closed and was replaced by Lord & Taylor in 1996.Lakeforest was host to a Friendly's and a Long John Silver's during the 1990s.

On August 20, 1998, Taubman Centers sold the property to GM Pension Trust. Circa September 1998, some parking lot space was devoted to become the Lakeforest Transit Center with a Park and Ride.

In January 2000, the Cineplex Odeon Lakeforest 5 movie theater was closed. In November 2000, a food court called Cafes in the Forest was introduced where the Cineplex Odeon Lakeforest 5 movie theater once was and started out with nine food businesses, with roughly half a dozen food eateries already in the mall prior to the food court.

In 2003, Simon Property Group purchased the mall.On May 28, 2006, Macy's replaced Hecht's, as the latter had begun to be purchased by Macy's nationwide. Originally developed, owned and operated by Taubman Centers, the mall has been owned and managed by the Simon Property Group since 2007, when it purchased former owner and manager Mills Corporation. The company defaulted on its mortgage in 2011 and the mall was put up for sale after.

fountain in the center court were removed and tiled over in August 2013.

On August 22, 2017, Gaithersburg's Lakeforest Mall was sold at auction for $19.1 million, a fraction of the $100 million price tag from 2012. The auction came after the mall's owner, Five Mile Capital, went into foreclosure. As of August 2017, the mall's general manager is Paul DeMarco. The Annapolis-based Petrie Richardson Ventures has Lakeforest under contract, which would not include the anchor stores in a potential purchase, but as of February 2018 the deal has not been closed.

On February 28, 2019 it was announced that JCPenney would be closing as part of a plan to close 27 stores in the U.S.; the store closed on July 5, 2019. On June 5, 2019, a Gaithersburg City Councilmember tweeted that Lord & Taylor was planning to close its Lakeforest Mall location on September 15, 2019. The store closed on September 15, 2019 as scheduled.

This left Macy's and Sears as the only anchor stores left open before any redevelopment, as publicly desired by the Gaithersburg municipal government, could be considered. On August 31, 2019 it was announced that Sears would be closing its location at Lakeforest Mall as part of a plan to close 92 stores across the U.S.; the store closed on December 1, 2019, leaving Macy's as the only anchor left.

On October 20, 2022, WRS Inc. announced that Lakeforest Mall would be demolished by 2024, with a more specific date being announced later in 2023. On January 4, 2023, it was announced that Macy's would be closed as part of a plan to close 4 stores nationwide, all inside underperforming indoor shopping malls. This left the mall with no anchors left. The store closed on March 18, 2023 via liquidation sales that started on January 9, 2023.

On March 31, 2023, Lakeforest Mall permanently closed after 44 years of serving the community of Gaithersburg.

#DMOD #closed #lakeforest

00:00 Introduction
01:30 Food Court
05:35 Sears
07:21 Center Court / Those Skylights
08:29 Lord & Taylor
11:47 JC Penney / Art Sculpture
15:12 Safe
17:08 Macy's
18:21 Opps! You're not closed!
28:47 Escalator Ride
31:51 Elevator Ride to where???
37:38 Exit / Exterior View / Photos

#deadmallmusic #deadmall #iconic #dmod