Tuesday, October 27, 2026
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Market ReportsRestaurantRetailSoutheastSoutheast Market ReportsVirginia

Richmond Retail Continues to Shine as Leasing, Investment Activity Remain Strong

by John Nelson

Richmond’s retail market continues to be one of the bright spots in commercial real estate, and it’s not difficult to understand why. While many markets across the country are still working through elevated vacancies and changing consumer habits, Richmond continues to benefit from steady population growth, a diverse economy and a retail inventory that remains remarkably full. Retailers continue to expand here. Investors continue to buy here. And perhaps most importantly, consumers continue to support both national brands and local businesses in a meaningful way. The result is a market that feels healthy, active and well-positioned for future growth. Quality space is hard to find If there’s one thing everyone in can agree on today, it’s that quality retail space is increasingly difficult to find in Richmond. Vacancy throughout the region remains exceptionally low, particularly in established corridors, hovering at around 3.6 percent in the second quarter. Areas like Short Pump, Midlothian and many neighborhood shopping center locations continue to operate with very little available inventory, creating a competitive environment for retailers looking to enter the market or expand existing operations. This has caused rents to continue to trend upward, leaving the landlord with the upper hand. The interesting part …

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Market ReportsMultifamilySoutheastSoutheast Market ReportsVirginia

Richmond Multifamily Market Moves Up Investors’ Target Lists

by John Nelson

For years, Richmond occupied an interesting position in the Mid-Atlantic multifamily landscape: large enough to attract institutional capital, but often overshadowed by bigger markets such as Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia. That is changing. Richmond has moved considerably higher on investors’ target lists over the past several years, initially propelled by the migration patterns that emerged during the pandemic. People flocked to Richmond for its relatively affordable housing and quality of life.  While that migration isn’t occurring at COVID-era levels today, those fundamentals remain. Increasingly, investors are recognizing that Richmond offers something particularly valuable in the current environment: attractive yield in a market where pricing has not necessarily caught up with the underlying fundamentals. Fundamentals hold up Richmond’s multifamily market is absorbing a meaningful amount of new supply while continuing to generate rent growth. Effective rents reached $1,658 at midyear, representing 4.1 percent growth, while occupancy stood at approximately 94 percent, according to Pyxis. The market absorbed 2,733 units over the previous 12 months, according to research from CoStar Group. Those numbers are particularly noteworthy given the recent construction cycle. Nearly 7,000 units were completed during the past 12 months. Another 5,736 are expected during the coming year, according to …

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IndustrialMarket ReportsSoutheastSoutheast Market ReportsVirginia

Richmond Industrial Real Estate: A Market Maturing Into Its Next Phase

by John Nelson

Richmond’s industrial real estate market has changed considerably over the past several years. What was once a relatively quiet Mid-Atlantic logistics market became one of the country’s most competitive industrial markets during the pandemic. Record leasing activity, limited availability and rapidly rising rents attracted developers and institutional capital from across the country. Today, the market is more balanced — and, in my opinion, healthier. The fundamentals remain strong, but the days of putting a sign on a warehouse and watching tenants compete for the space are behind us. For owners, developers and investors, success in Richmond’s industrial market now requires a much closer look at location, building functionality, basis and tenant demand. The numbers tell the story. Richmond entered the second half of 2026 with an industrial vacancy rate of approximately 5.5 percent, according to CBRE, while the market posted positive net absorption of 136,000 square feet during the second quarter. Average asking rents reached $8.86 per square foot, up 2.4 percent from the prior quarter. At the same time, the development pipeline has grown to approximately 12.6 million square feet under construction, of which approximately 3.9 million are speculative projects. That amount of new supply deserves attention. Richmond has …

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District of ColumbiaMarket ReportsMarylandMixed-UseRestaurantRetailSoutheastSoutheast Market ReportsVirginia

Mid-Atlantic Retail Market Is Experiencing Methodical Growth

by John Nelson

Retail real estate across the Mid-Atlantic is having a moment — but it’s a disciplined one. As fundamentals remain healthy in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., the region is seeing a notably more selective approach to retail growth. Years of limited new development, zoning constraints and rising construction costs have tightened supply, pushing owners, investors and municipalities to be far more intentional about what gets built — and where. Sources interviewed for this article point to the sustained demand for well-located shopping centers, such as those anchored by strong tenants, daily-needs retailers and dense surrounding populations.“Retail today is about durability,” states Mike Castellitto, chief operating officer of Broad Reach Retail Partners. “Assets that serve essential, repeat-use visitors continue to outperform and attract both tenants and investors.” Shifting consumer preferences in VirginiaFrom Washington, D.C.’s dense suburban corridors to fast-growing secondary markets, Virginia’s retail real estate landscape remains one of the Mid-Atlantic’s steadiest performers. The Commonwealth’s strongest retail fundamentals are often seen in Northern Virginia and select regional hubs like metro Philadelphia, Virginia Beach and Richmond, where household income growth and population density create robust demand. Jim Ashby, senior vice president of the Retail Services Group at Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, …

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AlabamaGeorgiaIndustrialMarket ReportsNorth CarolinaSouth CarolinaSoutheastSoutheast Market ReportsVirginia

Tariffs Are Moving the Needle for Manufacturing, Distribution Demand on the I-85 Industrial Corridor

by John Nelson

More than seven months have passed since Liberation Day, where the Trump administration declared a sweeping package of tariffs for foreign trade partners and specific commodities, including steel and aluminum. Since the announcement in early April, there has been a boon in the amount of multibillion-dollar advanced manufacturing, life sciences, semiconductor and data center investment announcements around the country, with the markets along the I-85 Industrial Corridor being no exception.  To name a few: Toyota has recently begun production at its $13.9 billion battery plant in Liberty, N.C.; Rivian broke ground on its $5 billion electric vehicle plant near Social Circle, Ga.; JetZero is planning to create 14,500 jobs for an aerospace manufacturing facility in Greensboro, N.C.; Eli Lilly is developing a $5 billion pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in the Richmond suburb of Goochland County, Va.; and Google is developing a trio of data centers in metro Richmond’s Chesterfield County. “We have incredible momentum bringing business back into the United States, which is going to drive industrial growth, particularly in the Southeast,” says Jim Anthony, CEO and founder of APG Companies. “We’re not unionized, we have lower taxes, fewer regulations and lower cost of energy, which is huge factor in site …

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Data CentersIndustrialMarket ReportsSoutheastSoutheast Market ReportsVirginia

Richmond’s Industrial Market Is an Institutional Capital Darling

by John Nelson

The Richmond industrial market has been undergoing a dramatic transformation that reads like a case study in strategic positioning and timing. Over the past decade, this “regional market” has become a U.S. powerhouse, boasting all the ingredients to attract, maintain and organically grow supply-chain focused global occupiers and institutional capital investment. Richmond’s strategic advantages include its prime location on I-95 — equidistant to both metropolitan D.C. and the Port of Virginia — attractive labor demographics, disciplined development and strong demand from Fortune 100 occupiers. Additionally, the surging data center hyperscalers and their suppliers have further catalyzed growth in the market. The result? Richmond now features one of the lowest U.S. vacancy rates, sustained year-over-year rent growth, a feeding frenzy of institutional capital routinely producing 10 to 15 bids and lender quotes per property that have fundamentally reshaped who owns, develops and finances industrial real estate in the market. From regional player to national stage Over the past decade, Richmond experienced a 68 percent increase in institutional investors and lenders, growing from 47 participants in 2015 to nearly 80 unique institutions that have invested in and loaned on Richmond industrial assets, with 50 cents of every dollar invested in Richmond coming from …

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Market ReportsMixed-UseRestaurantRetailSoutheastSoutheast Market ReportsVirginia

Richmond’s Mixed-Use Boom Fuels the City’s Retail Market

by John Nelson

The Richmond retail market has maintained strong fundamentals as the city’s diverse economic base and solid residential growth continue to fuel a historically low vacancy rate.  Demand is very strong from a variety of uses, ranging from soft goods and restaurants to entertainment and personal services such as med spas and boutique fitness. The coffee segment, long dominated by Starbucks Coffee, has seen a number of new competitors enter the market. Dunkin’ has been on a strong growth cycle, and more recently Dutch Bros Coffee, Scooters Coffee, Foxtail Coffee and PJs Coffee have been actively looking for sites. 7 Brew has been particularly active, opening two new stores and filling their pipeline with additional sites.   However, the real story in Richmond is the number of mixed-use projects that are in the planning stages or have broken ground, with virtually all of them anchored by a grocery store.  In Chesterfield County, the first phase of development for Springline at District 60 is near completion. Located at the intersection of Midlothian Turnpike and Chippenham Parkway, work was recently completed on a new 150,000-square-foot office building anchored by Timmons Group, while the 298-unit apartment building, The James at Springline, is nearing completion. …

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Market ReportsOfficeSoutheastSoutheast Market ReportsVirginia

Conversions, Return to Office Movement Help Propel Richmond’s Office Market

by John Nelson

Richmond’s office market stands out as a resilient post-pandemic performer, with strong relocation activity, a notably low vacancy rate driven by steady return-to-office trends and dynamic development, including office-to-residential conversions that are reshaping both the office and retail landscapes. Relocations have outpaced renewals in 2025, accounting for 78 percent of leases signed so far this year — the highest ratio of new leases to renewals since before 2019. This marks an increase even over the past few years, which were already remarkably healthy.  Richmond’s overall leasing activity remains stable, escaping the post-pandemic decline that crippled many other markets. The region has also recorded positive absorption for four consecutive quarters, signaling steadily increasing demand following occupancy losses from 2021 through 2023.  Return-to-office initiatives have reignited space needs that have been put on hold for months, or even years. As a result, average daily employee attendance in downtown Richmond has risen from 2,200 in 2022 to more than 3,000 in 2025, according to Placer.ai data, analyzed by CBRE Research. While this still trails pre-COVID levels by about 43 percent, it reflects progress toward restoring a balanced office market. Class A and B properties have repeatedly shown positive net absorption when broken down …

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Market ReportsMultifamilySoutheastSoutheast Market ReportsVirginia

Richmond’s Multifamily Market Maintains Rent Growth, High Occupancy

by John Nelson

Richmond, capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia and centrally located between the rolling hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the sandy beaches fronting the Atlantic Ocean, remains a vibrant city with an educated and expanding workforce benefitting from the city’s thriving and diverse economy.  Home to eight Fortune 500 companies and three Fortune 1000 businesses, Richmond’s unemployment rate of 2.8 percent, a 10-basis-point decrease year-over-year, is slightly above the state’s unemployment rate of 2.7 percent but well below the national rate of 4.3 percent, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Richmond’s job market has remained robust, adding over 38,000 jobs from first-quarter 2020 through summer 2024. In the past 36 months alone, CoStar Group (2,000 new jobs), LEGO (1,760 new jobs), and SanMar (1,000 new jobs) have all announced significant corporate and capital commitments to the market. Government and education/health remain the largest regional employment sectors and have experienced the highest year-over-year employment increases of 3.7 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively.  Richmond’s continued ability to retain and attract talent due to a high quality of life, affordable cost of living and access to an abundance of local and regional amenities has had a profound impact …

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Market ReportsRetailSoutheastSoutheast Market ReportsVirginia

Richmond’s Retail Market Is as Hot as a Firecracker, With a New Baseball Stadium Underway

by John Nelson

If you asked any retail broker in the Richmond market in April 2020 what the forecast might look like, the response would be dark and stormy skies ahead with record-high retail vacancy rates. Fast forward four years later, and the forecast has been quite the opposite, with sunny skies in terms of deal flow and record-low retail vacancy rates, both a positive and a negative as it relates to the vacancy rate itself.  Richmond boasts close to 82 million square feet of retail space, and at the end of the second quarter of this year, the vacancy rate stood at 3 percent. Despite COVID, the vacancy rate stood at 5.1 percent at the end of 2020. The market is experiencing record-high demand for new space and about a 15.6 percent year-over-year increase in quoted rental rates due to that demand and limited product availability. Since 2020, our market has seen, on average, 2 million square feet of retail space leased per year, and all signs point to steady leasing velocity in the future.   Short Pump, Hull Street West The Short Pump and Hull Street West submarkets continue to be the prime focus of many retailers looking to expand in …

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