Vacancies, New Businesses: Vienna Economic Development Director Gives Update

VIENNA, VA — Despite some economic uncertainty from federal government workforce changes, Vienna's economic development director painted a positive outlook for the town's economy.

Economic Development Director Nicole Toulouse spoke with Town Manager Mercury Payton in his latest "On Deck With Mercury" episode about current town issues. Toulouse joined the town in January after working for Fairfax City Economic Development.

"We've been really, really happy about the numbers that we're seeing come in this year on meals, tax, sales tax assessments throughout the entire town," said Toulouse. "I know that there's a lot of uncertainty throughout the region with what's going on federally, but really what we're seeing on the ground right now in here has been largely positive."

Dining out appears to remain strong in town. Toulouse said the town's budget had anticipated flat meals tax revenue, but the actual revenue is pacing to have a 9.8 percent increase for the year.

The economic development manager gave credit to the businesses in town. One contributor to increasing meals tax revenue was the returning Vienna Restaurant Week in March, which drew participation from nearly 50 restaurants. Meals tax revenue from March was up 17 percent compared to the year before.

Close to where the officials were recording their conversation in Caffe Amouri, the town is pursuing another new initiative targeted toward visitors. The town and NOVA Parks recently announced a partnership to explore a visitors center for the Washington & Old Dominion Trail in Vienna. Toulouse said the process is in the early stages and mentioned two properties near the trail that the same owner is looking to sell together.

"The W&OD has about 3 million people that travel on it every single year, and so it's one of our biggest attractions," said Toulouse. "It is our biggest attraction in the town in terms of bringing people in to a destination. It is our destination marketing. And so when we have an asset like that, making sure that we capture those people and visitors and bring them into town to explore beyond just their trip for their bike ride is huge."

Overall, the town had a 4.7 percent vacancy rate as of late last year. Toulouse noted that was lower than Fairfax City's 6 percent, Falls Church's 8.5 percent and Herndon's 13 percent. She said when businesses are looking at locations, Vienna's Maple Avenue businesses have lots of foot traffic. It is also convenient to larger commercial areas like Tysons while maintaining a more suburban feel.

"Us being down at 4.7 percent vacancy is extremely impressive, also considering the fact that our rent is also kind of on the mid higher end range," said Toulouse. "So fact that we are able to maintain low vacancy and higher rents is really good for the assessed value of the buildings as well."

But some vacancies have been noticeable to residents. One example of a project that hasn't come to full fruition is Vienna Market (Maple Avenue and Pleasant Street NW), which Payton said has residential uses completed but not commercial uses yet established. Toulouse noted there has been difficulty finding a tenant.

"The town is encouraging them to move forward on the project as much as we can," said Toulouse. "Right now, they've built out the space in a way that needs some changes, and they're still figuring that out internally about how to move forward with it. We're providing the support that we can to get them moving on it and working with them as we can for finding a tenant."

Another major vacancy has been an office building on Follin Lane that has been unoccupied for nearly a decade. Toulouse said staff had a recent work session with the owner that "prompted the owner to start real conversations with people that had put in bids onto the building." The owner is now considering bids in the short term.

The town is also monitoring the vacant lot at 444 Maple Avenue West, where the old Wolf Trap Hotel and Tequila Grande were demolished. Months after being approved, the project was in limbo due to changing interest rates, increased costs of construction and the changing financial feasibility.

"We are engaged with the owner about maintaining that site as being, at minimum, safe and not ugly to look at and trying to make sure that that is at minimum up to snub," said Toulouse. "In a more proactive sense, though, we're also working with the owner to make sure that they have what they need to either see their vision through or find other interested parties who we've offered to them to kind of move forward in a different direction with the previous approvals."

The economic development department keeps a priority list of vacancies within town and may step in to help. Toulouse said the office does "proactive business attraction efforts."

One area that is filling vacancies is the Cedar Park Shopping Center. Ace Hardware has signed a lease at 264 Cedar Lane Suite E, the former CVS location.

"I think that we've heard from a lot of people that they're interested in having more like retaily hardware," said Toulouse. "We obviously have Sheets [Wholesale], which is a bit more like big commercial hardware, but being able to have a local hardware store was kind of a missing retail link in our town."

A temporary Patrick Henry Library location will also open at the Cedar Park Shopping Center (262 Cedar Lane Suite C) as a larger, 19,000-square-foot library is constructed at the permanent location. Limited services will be provided at the temporary location once it opens. Fairfax County Public Library has not yet announced an opening date for the temporary location.

Over the summer, Toulouse encouraged residents to continue shopping local, as business can get slow when people are on vacation.

"The takeaway from every conversation I always have is shop local. Walk around your town," said Toulouse. "Whenever you're on a walk, explore the W&OD, come out here onto Church, go onto Maple and just shop and explore. There's so many places that you probably haven't tried recently, if not ever. There's always something new opening. So try something new. Try a longtime favorite."

On Deck with Mercury is a monthly recorded series on issues affecting the town. Residents can check the town's social media for locations to attend in person. Broadcasts are available on the town’s cable access channel, channel 27 on Cox and 38 on Verizon Fios, or recordings on the town's YouTube channel.