WRS, Inc. has submitted Schematic Development Plan application SDP-9736-2024 proposing to redevelop the existing Lakeforest Mall property with 1,600 residential units, 750,000 square feet of employment uses, 250,000 square feet of large format retail, and 220,000 square feet of commercial uses, per the City of Gaithersburg website.
The Lakeforest Site is comprised of 8 separate parcels. The Mall itself is addressed at 701 Russell Ave. in Gaithersburg. The Mayor and City Council previously approved rezoning and sketch plan application SK-9444-2022 on April 17, 2023. The plans are currently under review. A joint public hearing with the Mayor and City Council and Planning Commission has not been scheduled. Once a public hearing is scheduled we will provide you with an update (some conceptual site design and proposed site plan renderings available below, all subject to change).
Lakeforest Mall closed to the public on Friday, March 31st, 2023. The mall first opened on September 12, 1978. It was built on top of Lake Walker, a park (and lake) that was on the property. The mall opened with approximately 30-50 stores, with some of the first stores being relocated from the then nearby indoor Village Mall (now an outdoor strip mall called Montgomery Village Center since 1991) and absorbed onto the property.
At the time it opened, the mall’s anchor stores were JCPenney, Sears, Woodward & Lothrop, and Hecht’s. 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. The ice skating rink was replaced by a NTI Theaters movie theater in 1984, later renamed Cineplex Odeon Lakeforest 5, then by a food court, which now occupies the space.
Some photos below courtesy of WRS, Inc.:
