JULY 28 - AUGUST 3, 2021 ISSUE 3030
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Commercial Real Estate:
What a Difference a Year Makes BY CARLA HUCKABEE
message. Particularly when long-time stalwarts The Downtown Grille closed after 21 years and The College Inn after 53 years, it was easy to get caught up in negative predictions and trends. Fortunately, the scale of vacancies and turnover isn’t un-precedented and isn’t beyond the capacity to be reabsorbed. Chris Engel, Director of Economic Development for Charlottesville, said “We’ve seen a little more turnover than we’re used to seeing and some popular, longtime businesses are leaving, but I expect those vacant storefronts to be filled pretty quickly.” Chipotle Mexican Grill has already taken The College Inn’s space. Stoner agrees. “The vacancy rate for the Downtown Mall has been statistically zero. That has stunted our ability to grow and remain vibrant and current. Turnover and vacancies can create opportunities for the next generation of entrepreneurs to come in and shape the market.” In Scottsville much of the commercial district is owned outright, according to Matthew Holt, REALTOR® with 1st Dominion Realty Inc. “We didn’t have very many businesses completely failing. And now everything has started to pop back up as customers are starting to engage with businesses in person again.”
Every Sector Contributing
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While not every sector of the commercial real estate market has been hit equally hard, there are sparks of recovery coming from every direction. Office buildings nearing completion are poised to have their workers support local retail, restaurants, and services. Most notable in the area are the Center of Developing Entrepreneurs, (CODE) and the Apex Plaza Building. Developer Andrew Boninti, CHS Development, says “The CODE building is scheduled to open on Labor Day. Most of our tenants will still be working on the interior buildout of their spaces, but we should have one or two of our main tenants ready to move in around that date.” And just a few months afterwards, Apex Plaza is expected to be cleared for occupancy with most of their tenants completing buildout over the winter
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year ago, the business and economic outlook was downright gloomy. Everyone was beginning to realize that COVID wasn’t going to just disappear at the end of the summer. Restaurants were shuttered or had switched to take out only. Most office employees were working from home and nearly all town centers and urban areas were taking the economic brunt of those missing employees who no longer shopped and ate in their establishments as part of their daily routine. A year later, as we are fully enmeshed in the recovery phase of the COVID pandemic, most are breathing a collective sigh of relief as we realize that it could have been a whole lot worse.
Left: The CODE building is scheduled to open on Labor Day Below: The Downtown Grille closed after 21 years
Not the Worst Possible Scenario With the caveat that the burden has not been spread evenly and people lost their lives, their businesses and their livelihoods, the worst-case scenario did not play out. “The economic fallout from the COVID pandemic is not as bad as we expected,” said Jenny Stoner, Senior Associate with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer. “I think a lot of people, including many experts, are pleasantly surprised at where we are in our economic comeback. In part, that’s because we did not fall as far as we could have.” On Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall, empty store fronts are rare. When they began popping up during the pandemic, it broadcast that all was not well. Similar vacancies and turnover at UVA’s shopping district, The Corner, spread the same