Clothing and home décor retailer Lands’ End will open a Rockville store in the fall, the company announced last week.
Published reports in late June revealed the store would be coming to the Congressional Plaza shopping center, but did not say when. Representatives from Lands’ End declined to comment at the time since a lease had not been signed.
The 8,500-square-foot store will take over the former Performance Bicycle Shop space. It will be the second brick-and-mortar Lands’ End location in the state, joining one in Cockeysville. There is a Lands’ End area in Sears at Lakeforest mall in Gaithersburg.
“We’re excited to continue to expand our brick-and-mortar footprint, and integrate our digital retailer experience into our new store concepts,” Lands’ End senior vice president of retail Claudia Mazo said in a statement.
No one from the company was available to comment further on Monday or Tuesday.
The Wisconsin-based company was founded in 1963 selling sailboat hardware and equipment by catalog, before shifting to apparel and establishing an online presence.
Sears acquired Lands’ End as a subsidiary in 2002 and started its “store-within-a-store” concept three years later. Lands’ End has since moved away from that model as parent company Sears Holdings struggled.
The company has added three physical stores in 2019 and is working to debut seven to nine more this year, according to its most recent earnings report.
“We are delighted the company has selected Congressional Plaza as a key location for that expansion,” Federal Realty Investment Trust Director of Asset Management Kari Glinski said in a statement. “For four decades Congressional Plaza has been transformed to meet the needs of the community with stores including Lands’ End that will enhance our shoppers’ lifestyles and shopping needs.”
Federal Realty Investment Trust owns and operates the Congressional Plaza shopping center.
The Rockville location will feature a “hybrid brick-and-mortar and digital retail experience,” including a touch-screen kiosk and digital shopping area, according to a Lands’ End news release. It will be the first store in the Washington area.
“Congressional Plaza is [a] convenient location for our customers in Maryland, and we’re excited to support them in the communities in which they live,” Mazo said.
Charlie Wright can be reached at charlie.wright@moco360.media
