Businesses flocking to Fairfax Co.’s entertainment hubs, helping retail thrive – WTOP News

Fairfax County’s bustling shopping and entertainment districts are drawing in restaurants and stores, helping retail in the Northern Virginia suburb succeed.

The county’s 3.5% retail vacancy rate is below the Virginia and U.S. averages, according to data presented at a Board of Supervisors Economic Initiatives Committee meeting earlier this month.

Rebecca Moudry, director of the county’s Department of Economic Initiatives, said Fairfax County has over 230 shopping centers and 45-50 million square feet of retail.

“Our local retail market has been doing quite well and is quite strong,” Moudry told the board.

One reason for that, according to Kelly Atkinson, director of the Department of Planning and Development’s planning division, is the success of areas such as the Mosaic District and Reston Town Center.

The influx of new restaurants and entertainment opportunities are attracting businesses, Atkinson said.

“You’ve seen stores leave the mall and go to some of these lifestyle centers, like Mosaic, because of the marketing, the quality, the mixed-use, the variety of different experiences there,” Atkinson said.

That does have consequences, though, she said. Some of “the aging, more strip, car-centric developments have been struggling a little bit.”

As a result, the board is considering alternative ways to use some of those spaces.

“The community around these shopping centers, where you have a center that is struggling or that seems outdated, behind the times, has an effect on the residential communities around them,” Board Chairman Jeff McKay said. “A literal effect in value, probably, but it has an effect in terms of community pride, spirit, and where people are seeing investment in the county happening.”

While some experts suspected a growth in online shopping, fueled by the pandemic, would cause the retail industry to suffer, Moudry said that hasn’t been the case because residents still want to bond with family and friends through local experiences.

“We still want to go out to the community and have interactions and have unique experiences and shop at our favorite local place. That is just kind of a human experience that it has kind of bore out to some extent,” Moudry said.

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