WeWork Seeks To Reject Leases In Dupont Circle, Mount Vernon Triangle

Retail experts were shouting “Dead man walking!” about America's malls even before a worldwide health crisis dealt what many expected to be the knockout punch.

But new data indicates the sector didn’t hear no bell. 

The nation’s top class of malls has caught its breath and found itself again after a well-documented identity crisis that saw consumers shift purchases from brick-and-mortar buys to clicks and keystrokes on computers and phones. A new report shows that consumers are flocking back to those centers, lifting overall mall foot traffic to its highest level since the pandemic began.

Yet some of that has come at the cost of hundreds of other formerly hopping centers failing to remake their business models, either closing outright or barely holding on, and clearing the field. And even for those owners that have remade their images and refilled their rosters, looming debt maturities could threaten fragile victory as retail income streams grow more diverse and less predictable. 

“Amidst the ‘demise of the mall’ narrative that dominated so strongly pre-pandemic, we need to tip our cap to these top-tier mall owners who have made really, really smart decisions, saw where the winds were shifting and were able to align really well,” said Ethan Chernofsky, senior vice…

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The plan was in motion. D.C.’s NBA and NHL teams, the Wizards and Capitals, were preparing to move from their longtime home downtown to anchor a new $2B mixed-use entertainment district in a rapidly developing neighborhood of Northern Virginia. 

But in an upset, team owner Monumental Sports & Entertainment announced last week they would be staying at the Capital One Arena in D.C., where they’ve played since 1997.

With the agreement, D.C. committed $515M, which was approved Tuesday by the D.C. Council, for a renovation of the arena and a 200K SF expansion into a neighboring building, Gallery Place. The terms also call for a new practice facility for the Wizards, possibly on the top floors of Gallery…

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