Lakeforest Mall closed on March 31, 2023, after nearly 45 years in Gaithersburg.
Originally opened on September 12, 1978, the mall featured anchor stores JCPenney, Sears, Woodward & Lothrop, and Hecht’s. It was one of the first malls in the U.S. to include an indoor ice-skating rink, and was the largest indoor shopping mall in Montgomery County at the time. The rink was later replaced by a movie theater in 1984, which eventually became a food court. The mall was built on the former Lake Walker Park and opened with approximately 30 to 50 stores, many of which relocated from the nearby indoor Village Mall, now Montgomery Village Center.
WRS Inc., a South Carolina-based real estate investment firm, purchased the “core” of Lakeforest Mall in 2019 and completed the acquisition of the mall’s four anchor sites in 2022…