It’s been a couple of years since Westfield Montgomery announced a massive expansion and reinvention. Plans called for the existing mall to mostly remain intact, while new buildings rose all around it: apartments, a hotel, a multi-story fitness center and an open-air shopping/dining promenade. The whole project was supposed to start with demolition of the former Sears building. Then the pandemic happened, and tenants started exiting the mall in droves. It’s been almost a year since Montgomery County gave the go-ahead for the mall’s expansion — but not a brick has been laid since then. In fact, mall owner Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield recently announced that it’s exiting the U.S. and will try to sell off all its American holdings. What does this mean for Westfield Montgomery? Likely a new owner — and a new name. What does this mean for the expansion plan? No one knows the answer.
