In their place rose the residential Americana Centre, more county buildings, high-rise offices, and a large shopping mall with 1,560 spaces of underground parking.

Within a year, Lansburgh's closed and was replaced briefly with a branch of Lit Brothers, followed by a W. & J. Sloane furniture clearance center and Franklin Simon & Co.

[4] That year, despite the opening of the adjacent Montgomery County Executive Office Building, tenancy eventually dwindled to a handful, the property's New York–based owner, Rockville Development Associates, went bankrupt, and the mall was closed.

Rockville Mayor and later Montgomery County executive Doug Duncan launched a massive campaign against the mall, known locally as the "Berlin Wall", in 1993, arguing that the large, scarcely occupied facility was a millstone holding back downtown development and limiting the city's property tax intake.

Later that year, they opened the first phase of the $300 million Rockville Center project, which included renovated and expanded theaters and a "restaurant row.