DR. JERRY GORDON KNOWS THE SECRET SAUCE FOR SUCCESS

RE+VIEW MAGAZINE: HOW DO YOU SEE THE DIRECTION OF THE FAIRFAX COUNTY ECONOMY?
 Dr. Jerry Gordon: “The Fairfax County economy has been stable for decades. Even through the past several years of slow national and global economic growth
and sequestration, the economy has shown moderate to steady growth. 

“As of April (the last month with available data), the unemployment rate is only 2.6 percent. Vacancy rates in office space throughout the county’s various submarkets is higher than that to which we are accustomed. That is due to a combination of factors, including dramatic and dense growth in Tysons Corner along the four new Silver Line stations, and historically low financing rates. 

“Further, demand has slowed down due to the upcoming presidential elections. Growth should slowly accelerate in the new year. Finally, the diversification of the county’s economy over the past decade (e.g., Hilton, Capitol One, Volkswagen North America, Bechel, Intelsat, CVent, and others) has helped balance the county’s growth even through marginal losses in federal procurement levels.”


RE+VIEW MAGAZINE: WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THE CURRENT RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE MARKETS?
Dr. Gerry Gordon: The County’s commercial office market began 2016 on a strong note. Gross office leasing increased by nearly 5 percent from the previous year to 10.3 million square feet. Demand for newer space, and space near Metrorail stations, remained strong. 

The overall office vacancy rate (including empty sublet space) began the year at 17.2 percent compared to 17.7 percent a year earlier. Office construction continued with new projects breaking ground late in the year in Tysons Corner and Reston. In fact, the Fairfax County commercial office construction market ranked 17th nationally at the beginning of the year with nearly 2.5 million square feet of space under construction.

“About 96 million square feet of the county’s 116 million square feet of office space is occupied, and that occupied space is more than the total inventory of office space in the rest of northern Virginia.”

RE+VIEW MAGAZINE: HOW WILL THE NEW INOVA CENTER FOR PERSONALIZED HEALTH IMPACT OUR REGION 
Dr. Jerry Gordon: “The great strengths of the Fairfax County economy over the years has been in information technology. Today, those IT capabilities are being applied to a wide range of new applications that will help drive the economy in the future. Those include cybersecurity (both public needs and private needs), cloud computing, and data analytics.

“Prominent amongst these new opportunities are business applications that lie at the intersection of IT and the life sciences. This is the area of translational medicine, which will enable caregivers to consider an individual’s genetic makeup and their genetic predisposition to treating them as individuals rather than groups with common ailments.“

“Further, it will enable physicians to counsel their patients on behaviors designed to offset or avoid ailments for which they, as individuals, may have genetic predispositions. Because every human’s genetic code exceeds 6 billion characters, the IT capacity in Fairfax County is an enormous strength for the growth of the industry.

“Another vital asset for the growth of this industry in Fairfax County is the Inova Center for Personalized Health that will be located on the grounds of the former
Exxon Mobil corporate headquarters in Merrifield. Through Inova’s planning and the generosity of local individuals such as Dwight and Martha Schar, and Milt Peterson and the Peterson Family Foundation, the research and development process will be greatly accelerated and the impact on economic growth will be sooner.”