White Flint Mall says it’s time Lord & Taylor stop delaying its redevelopment plans.
The mall’s lawyers last week filed a motion to schedule a trial date in the almost two-year long court case against the department store, the only tenant of the mall that remains open.
Despite a federal court of appeals ruling earlier this month that said Lord & Taylor cannot get an injunction to stop the redevelopment, the department store is still arguing for damages based on its original lease agreement.
Lawyers for White Flint Mall said Lord & Taylor is intentionally delaying that process to “sandbag White Flint’s redevelopment efforts indefinitely in hopes of securing a multimillion-dollar payout for the release of its alleged ‘consent rights.'”
The lawyers also said Lord & Taylor “has refused to cooperate” with the mall when it comes to “aspects of the Mall’s demolition, including issues affecting the entrance to Lord & Taylor’s store from the Mall.”
In February, Lord & Taylor sent a lengthy letter to the director of Montgomery County’s Department of Permitting Services “seeking to block the issuance of demolition permits.”
“As White Flint and its witnesses have repeatedly noted, Lord & Taylor’s lawsuit is making it impossible for White Flint to secure project financing to attract key tenants willing to commit to the project,” wrote White Flint’s attorneys.
Developer Lerner Enterprises plans to tear down much of the mall structure and develop it into a mixed-use, town center-oriented project as part of the larger redevelopment of the White Flint/Pike District area along Rockville Pike.
In October 2012, the county Planning Board approved Lerner’s sketch plan for the project, the first of three approvals necessary for redevelopment.
But planning for the redevelopment stalled in July 2013, when Lord & Taylor filed suit against the mall’s owners and asked for the court to stop any demolition. The New York-based department store claimed tearing down the mall would violate the 1975 lease agreement with the mall that brought it to Rockville Pike.
White Flint Mall’s owners filed a countersuit, claiming Lord & Taylor was well aware of the coming redevelopment and that it timed the lawsuit in order to get a settlement payment out of the Lerner family-owned shopping center.
District Court Judge Roger Titus ruled in favor of White Flint Mall. Lord & Taylor appealed and on March 4, the Court of Appeals upheld Titus’ ruling.
Alan Gottlieb, chief operating officer of the mall, testified in December 2014 that the litigation made the project “dead in the water” because it was impossible for the developer to secure financing and new tenants.
The filing last week, made in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, also revealed that Lerner was considering an alternative plan to the sketch plan that was already approved, but made it clear to Lord & Taylor in January that it was going with the approved plan.
Lord & Taylor then filed a motion claiming it doesn’t have to disclose its damages experts until White Flint Mall produces a final site plan, which would also have to be approved by the Planning Board.
“By the mere filing of such a groundless motion, Lord & Taylor has granted itself a unilateral extension of time to designate its damages experts, thus further delaying the progress of discovery in this case,” according to White Flint’s filing last week. “Given the real-world impact the litigation is having on the redevelopment, drawing out the litigation gives Lord & Taylor the very relief — an injunction — this this Court and the Fourth Circuit have denoted it. Therefore, Lord & Taylor is doing everything it can to delay the trial of this case.”
