n LEESBURG
Pg. 6 | n PUBLIC SAFETY
VOL. 5, NO. 47
Pg. 8 | n BUSINESS
Pg. 12 | n LOCO LIVING
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Pg. 26 | n PUBLIC NOTICES
Pg. 28
OCTOBER 22, 2020
Supervisors Launch First COVID-Era Budget Work BY RENSS GREENE rgreene@loudounnow.com
Kara C. Rodriguez/Loudoun Now
Once an anchor of the Dulles Town Center shopping mall, the former Lord & Taylor store is now one of the many department stores shuttered globally, a sign of the changing whims of shoppers. The nation’s oldest department store chain filed for bankruptcy in August, but the Dulles Town Center location has been closed since last year.
Reinventing Retail
COVID-19, E-Commerce Challenge Shopping Industry’s Future BY KARA C. RODRIGUEZ krodriguez@loudounnow.com
An industry already troubled by the rise of e-commerce pre-pandemic has only seen its future even more challenged as the nation deals with what many see as only the beginning of the second surge of COVID-19. It’s left even the retail industry’s most well-respected brokers puzzled. “I don’t think anyone has the slightest clue of what’s going to happen,” said Reid Frazier, CEO of Evolution Commercial Real
Estate in Sterling. Frazier said it could be until next summer before there is a clearer picture on what the future of the retail industry will look like, and it’s anyone’s guess how many businesses will be left standing once COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror. The other unknown is what the consumer mindset will be at that time, he said. “There’s so many different moving pieces with this,” Frazier said. The “retail apocalypse,” as some have termed it, has seen some of the indus-
try’s former giants shutter their businesses during the height of the pandemic, or even prior to it. Malls, once the darling of the shopping industry, have now given way to mostly empty department store anchors, with blacked out windows a sign of some of the vacancies within their walls. Many industry pundits have suggested that malls reimagine themselves to be more of a destination or entertainment center, with some, like Fair Oaks Mall nearby, adding a Dave & RETAIL continues on page 38
Loudoun supervisors have set county staff members to work writing the next annual budget amid the uncertain fiscal picture of the COVID-19 pandemic. The county budget staff typically begin its work writing the next fiscal year’s budget almost as soon as the current one starts, which means early revenue estimates that tend to vary widely between supervisors’ initial budget guidance and their vote to adopt a budget in April. But that uncertainty has been multiplied this year, as County Administrator Tim Hemstreet begins work to write a budget that will begin in July 2021, more than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S. but—vaccine or not—while the country will likely still be feelings its economic effects. One of those effects is on the county government, which has been running an emergency pandemic response since March. Hemstreet said the county is “essentially operating two separate operations”—the response, and the county’s normal operations, such as they are during the pandemic. The county’s operations have already been cut back as the government implemented social distancing, telework, and flexible leave policies while also redirecting some funding to the pandemic response. BUDGET continues on page 39
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