On January 17, WRS, Inc. officially announced that Lakeforest Mall would be closing at the end of March, after almost 45 years in Gaithersburg. While there are still a handful of businesses open inside of the mall, including a pro wrestling training school, the last remaining stores are beginning to close, including Bath & Body Works and Charley’s Cheesesteaks, which both closed this past week.

Bath & Body Works is expected to open its new Gaithersburg location at Downtown Crown sometime in the next month. The new store will be located at 130 Crown Park Ave, in the location that was formerly home to Hair Cuttery, in between ZAGG and Warby Parker. Employees from the Lakeforest location have been transferred to the Germantown store at 20934 Frederick Rd.

In September, Charley’s Cheesesteaks opened a new location that also serves wings and ice cream at 405 N Frederick Ave in Gaithersburg, in the shopping center anchored by Megamart and FedEx Office.  There are also two Charleys locations expected to open in Germantown this year; one inside of Walmart in the former McDonald’s location, and one at 19877 Century Blvd.

Miss Toya’s Southern Kitchen at 229 Boardwalk Pl. in Rio has it alcoholic beverage license hearing with Montgomery County scheduled for February 16 at 10am, according to signage on the front door of the building.  The restaurant is going to be located in the 2,741SF space previously occupied by BGR, which closed back in June. We have been told by Rio Lakefront that the restaurant is currently anticipating an early 2023 opening. Miss Toya’s Southern Kitchen in Rio will be a fast-casual restaurant, while the recently opened Miss Toya’s Creole Kitchen at 923 Ellsworth Dr in Downtown Silver Spring is full-service (wait staff, etc.).

The restaurant is part of Jeffeary Miskiri’s Miskiri Hospitality Group, which describes itself as a unique collective of Black, family and woman-owned products and restaurants in the DC area. Miss Toya’s will serve southern-influenced dishes such as red beans and rice, macaroni and cheese and a southern fried chicken sandwich. It will be joining the recently announced Sportrock Climbing Centers, Charley Prime, Le Macaron, as well as the recently opened Donutchew, as locally-based businesses opening in Gaithersburg’s Rio. Below you’ll see a video of the recently opened full-service Miss Toya’s restaurant in Downtown Silver Spring:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChZ-tyJgUP_/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=c53984a8-5e53-4a38-ac20-f4e873b9c6dc

Sweetgreen will be holding a soft opening for its new Gaithersburg location at 299 Copley Place D100 in Downtown Crown this Friday, January 20 and Saturday, January 21. The official grand opening will be held on Tuesday, January 24. You can register for a free meal at the soft opening or a $5 app credit to use during the grand opening week at this link.

“We can’t wait to bring sweetgreen to your neighorbood! Join us before we officially open on Tuesday, January 24th to get a sneak peek of our new restaurant, meet the team, and taste our fresh, made-from-scratch menu with a bowl, plate or salad on us.”

Sweetgreen currently has three additional MoCo locations, in Bethesda, Downtown Silver Spring, and Pike & Rose. Crown has been without a fast-casual salad restaurant since Chopt closed in early 2020 and has since moved that location to the Kentlands neighborhood. Feature photo courtesy of Sweetgreen on Facebook.

The $100,000 winning Powerball ticket that was sold on September 5 at the Harris Teeter located at 323 Copley Place in Gaithersburg has been claimed by a woman from Virginia.  Full story courtesy of the Maryland Lottery: “Spending the day shopping with two Maryland friends gave a Fairfax, Va., resident a $100,000 memory she won’t soon forget. The Powerball jackpot had rolled to $159 million for the Sept. 5, 2022 drawing and all three of them wanted to buy tickets. They wound up at Harris Teeter #384 located at 323 Copley Place in Gaithersburg, where they joined others buying tickets.

The Virginia resident bought five lines of quick-pick numbers and added the Power Play multiplier for a total of $15, then joined her friends for dinner.The information technology specialist returned home that night and didn’t check her ticket after the drawing. “I kind of forgot about it,” she said. Meanwhile, her Maryland friends had great news to share with her. “They called me and said the Harris Teeter has a sign up saying someone won!”The mother of one then checked her ticket against the winning numbers and realized she won a $50,000 third-tier prize. Even better was her discovery that the Power Play multiplier for the drawing doubled her prize to $100,000! She signed her ticket and put it in a secure location until she could claim her prize this week at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore.

The happy winner plans to put her new fortune into her bank account to build her savings. She is still playing Powerball regularly. “It’s very encouraging to win,” she explained. Although she will buy Mega Millions tickets when the jackpot gets large like it is now (an estimated $1.35 billion for the Jan. 13 drawing), she prefers Powerball. No one hit the Powerball jackpot in Monday’s drawing, giving players a chance to win an estimated $360 million annuity jackpot in tonight’s drawing. The estimated cash option is $188.7 million.”

While nobody matched all six numbers in last night’s Mega Millions drawing, three MoCo retailers sold winning tickets worth $10,000. Those stores were the State Line Market at 7817 Eastern Avenue in Silver Spring, Tiger Beer, Wine & Deli at 303 North Washington Street in Rockville, and Watkins Mill Beer & Wine at 857 Russell Avenue in Gaithersburg. The next Mega Millions drawing will take place this Friday, January 13, and has an estimated value of  $1.35 billion with a cash value of $707.9 million. Additional details below courtesy of the Maryland Lottery:

Although there was no Mega Millions jackpot winner on Tuesday night, the drawing produced five third-tier $10,000-winning tickets sold in Maryland. Congratulations! The jackpot for the next Mega Millions drawing on Friday, Jan. 13 rolled to an estimated annuity value of $1.35 billion. If the jackpot is hit at that amount on Friday, it would be the second-largest in Mega Millions history and the fourth-largest in U.S. lottery history. The estimated cash value for Friday’s drawing is $707.9 million.

The winning numbers in the Jan. 10 drawing were 7, 13, 14, 15 and 18; the Mega Ball was 9 and the Megaplier was x3.

There are nine prize tiers in Mega Millions, ranging from $2 up to the jackpot. There were 135,900 winning tickets sold in Maryland for Tuesday’s drawing. The following retailers sold third-tier winning tickets for Tuesday night’s drawing worth $10,000 each:

• Discount Tobacco & Accessories, 4201 Branch Avenue in Temple Hills (Prince George’s County)
• Harris Teeter #376, 1801 Whetstone Way in Baltimore (Baltimore City)
• State Line Market, 7817 Eastern Avenue in Silver Spring (Montgomery County)
• Tiger Beer, Wine & Deli, 303 North Washington Street in Rockville (Montgomery County)
• Watkins Mill Beer & Wine, 857 Russell Avenue in Gaithersburg (Montgomery County)

Instructions on claiming prizes in person or by mail are available HERE. Players must redeem prizes larger than $25,000 by mail or at Lottery headquarters in the Montgomery Park Business Center, 1800 Washington Blvd., Suite 330 in Baltimore. The Lottery’s Customer Resource Center in Baltimore is open by appointment only (no walk-ins). Click HERE to schedule an appointment.

There were more than 6.1 million winning tickets sold nationally for Tuesday’s drawing, including 16 second-tier winning tickets worth at least $1 million each. The $1 million winners were sold in California, Florida, Kansas, Massachusetts (two), Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio (two), Oregon, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Second-tier winners in Connecticut, Florida and New York added the Megaplier option to their tickets, which tripled their prizes to $3 million.

Mega Millions tickets are sold in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In the 25 drawings since the last jackpot hit (Oct. 18 through Jan. 10), there have been: 68 second-tier winning tickets of at least $1 million and 920 third-tier winning tickets of at least $10,000 sold nationally. There have been a total of 33,271,792 winning tickets sold across all nine prize tiers during this jackpot run.

Maryland Lottery winners have 182 days from the drawing date to claim their prizes. Lottery officials encourage winners to sign the back of their tickets immediately and put them in a safe location. Check for a win using ticket scanners available at Maryland Lottery retailers or with the Maryland Lottery app, available in Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store.

Clearance sales are underway at the Lakeforest Mall Macy’s (701 Russell Ave) in Gaithersburg. Last week Macy’s confirmed to Axios that it will be closing several locations in 2023. Currently everything in the store is between 10-40% off and discounts will increase as the store gets closer to its closing date.
Click here to see a list of what stores are still open inside of Lakeforest Mall.

This was one of the largest hurdles in order for WRS Inc. to reach its target date of 2024 for demolition of the mall and the start of new construction. A more specific date will be available after the approval of sketch plans. The City of Gaithersburg Joint Planning Commission/Mayor and City Council Hearing on the plan is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023 at at City Hall, 31 S. Summit Avenue, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

WRS purchased the core, ponds, and forest conservation of the mall back in 2019 and added the four anchor sites earlier this year, spending a total of $75 million to acquire Lakeforest Mall. At a meeting in October, WRS announced that they have worked with the City of Gaithersburg since March and plan to submit their zoning application and sketch plan in the next couple weeks. As mentioned above, the target date for demolition of the mall and the start of new construction is currently 2024, with a more specific date to come after the approval of sketch plans. The sketch plan requires at least 35% “green space” and WRS stated that initial sketches are currently at a little more than 35%. Green space is defined as trees, grass, walking/biking areas, etc.

The current retention pond will be “cleaned up” and a boardwalk is in the plans for a dining experience on the water  that was described as being similar to what is available at nearby Rio Lakefront. WRS has also heard from several different movie theaters that are geared towards adults with food offerings and a bar, mentioning one that has a very robust civic program that would allow community groups to use one theater per week for their own functions. No specific names were given and it was noted that a discussion “doesn’t mean it’ll happen”.

A national builder has signed on to build all the various type of housing that will be available at the new development (areas G-P in the map pictured below). The name has not been released yet because the builder wants to announce it in a future press release. MCDOT has would also like to see an enlarged transit corner that will likely be located in area F. Area C would be heavily retail. “A place you’d go once a week to fill up the car with things you’d bring home to fill up the pantry.” A few in the crowd began to discuss Costco possibly moving to the new development, but it was never mentioned by WRS. Area D would be designated for medical offices, a space for a business to move its headquarters, lab space, etc.

Summit Hall Elementary School at 101 W Deer Park Rd in Gaithersburg was placed on a brief shelter in place Friday morning. According to MCPD, “Officers from the 6^th District responded to the area of Summit Hall Road and West Deer Park Road at approximately 9:42 a.m., for the report of a stabbing. Summit Hall Elementary School went into a shelter in place at approximately 10 a.m., while officers conducted their investigation.” The shelter in place has been lifted. We will post an update when additional information becomes available.

MCPD on Twitter: “Summit Hall Elementary school was placed on a brief shelter in place during a police investigation on Summit Hall Rd. The shelter in place has been lifted.”

Summit Hall Elementary school was placed on a brief shelter in place during a police investigation on Summit Hall Rd. The shelter in place has been lifted. #MCPD #MCPNews pic.twitter.com/dFmjs2CouK

— Montgomery County Department of Police (@mcpnews) January 6, 2023

Lakeforest Mall has been in the news a lot recently. Lakeforest owner WRS is proposing a full redevelopment of the space that will include both residential and commercial use. WRS spent $75 million to purchase the mall’s core, ponds, forest conservation, and four anchor sites and has targeted 2024 to begin demolition. Yesterday we reported that both Macy’s and Bath & Body Works will be leaving the mall in the near future and MoCo Show founder Alex T. appeared on FOX 5 to discuss all the recent developments. Below that is a list of what was open, and a few photos, from when we stopped by on January 5, 2023:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnDK4piIkhS/

Food/Beverage:

• Charley’s Philly Steaks
• Kelly’s Cajun Grill
• Nori Japan

Lower Level:

• 777 Foot Spa
• Aeropostale
• Bath & Bodyworks
• Beautiful U (eyebrows, waxing)
• Best Medicine Rx (theater group)
• Cell Fix (kiosk)
• Central Newsstand
• Champs Sports
• Finish Line
• French Perfume
• Home Décor & More (by appointment only)
• Photo Forever
• Rainbow (clothing)
• Renaissance Rumble (pro wrestling training school)
• Time Out Zone (arcade)
• Z Planet
• Walden Jewelers

Upper Level:

• AmeriGo (car and RV rentals)
• Essie Allen (clothing)
• JW Event Center (party rentals)
• Macy’s / Macy’s Backstage (closing soon)
• Melashops
• New Passion Nail Spa
• So What Else (food and resource charity)
• Style One (clothing)
• Trade My Cell
• USI: United Security Incorporated

Per the City of Gaithersburg: The City celebrates Financial Wellness Month in January with educational programs that help increase the financial stability & well-being of City residents. In recognition of this month, the Financial Empowerment Center presents a virtual Financial Education Workshop series featuring experts from leading financial institutions & members of the Gaithersburg Financial Wellness Coalition. Workshops are available in both English & Spanish. All sessions will take place from 7 to 8 p.m. To register, e-mail [email protected] with your name, e-mail address & what session(s) you would like to sign up for. A Zoom link will be sent to participants before each session.

Planet Fitness at 255 Muddy Branch Rd in Gaithersburg has reopened after temporarily closing on 12/13 for renovations. Upgrades include new rubber flooring and a new Black Card Spa area. The gym’s locker rooms and bathrooms will remain closed until further notice. Planet Fitness sent the following message to members on Friday, December 30:

“We’re so excited to let you know that Planet Fitness Gaithersburg is re-opening tomorrow, December 31st, at 7:00AM! However, our bathroom, showers and locker rooms remain closed until further notice.
Your upgraded & expanded club include:

• NEW PF Black Card Spa
• NEW locker rooms
• NEW Entrance Way Floor Tile
• NEW Rubber Flooring
• and MORE!”

Planet Fitness at 13031 Wisteria Dr in Germantown underwent $1.7 million worth of renovations and was expanded by 2,200 square fee this past fall.

The new Planet Fitness location in the Montrose Shopping Center in Rockville is also scheduled to open soon. The gym is moving from its 15,000 sq ft space at 1776 E Jefferson St to the 30,000 sq ft space at 5520 Randolph Rd, which was the previous site of Gold’s Gym. This will also be the first Planet Fitness location in Maryland to feature the new RelaxSpace Wellness Pod, where the gym’s Black Card members can “select between a variety of videos, scents and even temperatures while learning more about diet, nutrition, breathing and the benefits of exercise.”