Commercially-zoned land constitutes 18% of all land in the City. Out of the 620 acres in the City’s commercial districts, approximately 18 acres are vacant and have already been approved for development.
The principal sector for future commercial development and redevelopment is the Fairfax Boulevard Corridor, with additional development and redevelopment emphases on the Old Town Fairfax, Pickett Road and Main Street areas.
Fairfax City is a prime location for commercial real estate development initiatives, with demand for new office space in the City and other central Fairfax markets on the rise.
In particular, demand exists for office construction space for large tenants (more than 30,000 square feet) and small office buildings (10,000-30,000 square feet) for purchase as owner-occupied space.
Fairfax City is implementing several strategic initiatives to encourage office, retail, and restaurant development and further economic growth.
These initiatives include a comprehensive inventory of preferred sites, providing improvements and streetscape enhancements that will give targeted areas an improved, coherent visual theme and more organized pedestrian and traffic flows, and aggressively pursuing the type of related business services that typically complement office development, as noted in the City’s 2012 Comprehensive Plan.
The retail market in Fairfax City is in a very strong position, with a vacancy rate of approximately 5%. This rate is unusually low given the age of the City’s retail properties, the small size of many tenant businesses and the availability of retail development outside City limits.
Such an unusually low vacancy rate reflects a thriving retail base while a strong market exists for new commercial developments to provide for additional retail businesses.
