Dave & Buster’s wants second shot in suit over White Flint Mall lease

Dave & Buster’s Inc. is hoping for a second shot in its effort to keep its doors open at the White Flint Mall, an aging Montgomery County shopping center being primed for redevelopment as a sprawling town center.

The restaurant has asked a federal court to  reconsider the ruling he made last month that Dave & Buster’s violated its lease by operating another location in the Arundel Mills Mall. Dave & Buster’s said in the court filing that Judge Roger Titus failed to permit discovery, a process that would have allowed it to prove the issue wasn’t as straight-forward as Titus made it out to be.

At issue, the filing says, is Maryland case law on whether “radius restrictions” in leases are enforceable and, if they are, whether the judge had a responsibility to consider if the Arundel Mills location had any real impact on White Flint. Dave & Buster’s wanted a chance to prove otherwise.

Dave & Buster’s has also asked the court for a stay of enforcement of its March 24 ruling until it determines whether to appeal, given it’s facing eviction from the mall to make way for the planned 5.2 million-square-foot redevelopment project.

Dave & Buster’s is the second anchor retailer to sue White Flint over its proposed redevelopment plans, following a similar case from Lord & Taylor. Lord & Taylor  sought to halt the mall’s redevelopment until its lease expires, but has since lost several rulings seeking to delay the project.

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