Lord & Taylor Bankruptcy: Location At White Flint Is Closing
BETHESDA, MD — Lord & Taylor, the oldest U.S. department store chain, will close its doors at White Flint after filing for bankruptcy this month.
The luxury retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of Virginia on Aug. 2. It's one of the latest retailers to seek bankruptcy protection amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The store closing process for Lord & Taylor has already begun at 19 locations, including at 11311 Rockville Pike. An exact closing date has not yet been announced.
White Flint's Lord and Taylor kicked off its closing sale on Aug. 2. The store no longer accepts online returns.
The location on Rockville Pike is all that remains of the White Flint shopping mall — which was slated for demolition and redevelopment as a town center. It was the subject of a lengthy legal battle between the owners of the White Flint Mall, Lerner Enterprises, and the upscale department store chain.
Lord & Taylor sued Lerner Enterprises — a Rockville-based company that owns a majority stake in the Washington Nationals baseball franchise — for breaching a contract after trying to shut down the mall for redevelopment. The 1975 contract, Lord & Taylor argued, required the owners to keep the "enclosed mall" open until at least 2042.
In 2015, a federal jury ordered Lerner Enterprises to pay Lord & Taylor $31 million in damages.
This article originally appeared on the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Patch
