Owners Of White Flint Mall Site Agree To Arbitration In HQ2-Related Lawsuit

The minority owners of the former White Flint Mall in suburban Maryland have agreed to pause their lawsuit against the property’s majority owners, including members of Lerner Enterprises and the Tower Cos., as Amazon.com Inc. considers the area for a potential second headquarters.

Both sides agreed in an April 9 consent order to take the issue to arbitration, temporarily de-escalating what could have been a very public feud in Montgomery County Circuit Court. The former mall site is believed to be at the center of Montgomery County’s bid for Amazon’s HQ2, a prospect I wrote about on Monday.

In the lawsuit filed on March 28, descendants of developer Henry Reich alleged developer Ted Lerner and Tower MD Holdings LLC were trying to force them to sell their stake in the 45-acre site at 11301 Rockville Pike for substantially less than what they stand to gain by retaining their interest. The Reich descendants control a 25 percent stake in the property.

Amazon’s second headquarters is forecast to grow to up to 8 million square feet, 50,000 employees and a capital investment of around $5 billion. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) plans to make its selection for HQ2’s new home later this year.

Click here to read the rest of the article written by Daniel J. Sernovitz over at the Washington Business Journal