Displaced retail tenants secure concessions from Virginia Hospital Center
The Virginia Hospital Center has agreed to assist the small businesses it’s displacing from a small retail strip on Arlington Boulevard in Falls Church, the Viet Place Collective reports.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in October approved VHC’s plans to replace Graham Center with a health facility to include an emergency room, an urgent care center, and medical offices.
When the project was approved, neither Fairfax County nor VHC consulted with nor agreed to provide financial assistance to the small businesses being displaced, says Quynh Nguyen, core organizer with the Viet Place Collective, a grassroots organization that advocates for Vietnamese small businesses with the goal of preserving the community’s legacy in Northern Virginia.
Related story: Board approves medical center to replace retail strip
The Viet Place Collective organized an email campaign and spurred Providence Supervisor Dalia Palchik to hold a meeting with VHC officials and the owners of the small businesses, some of whom had been at Graham Center for decades.
“It was extremely disappointing that VHC was uprooting a community without any assistance for these people,” Nguyen says.
After the meeting, held in late February, VHC sent a letter to the tenants agreeing to their request for relief. VHC extended the deadline to vacate the property from March 30 to May 15. VHC also promised to return tenants’ security deposits and fully cover the cost of junk removal.
“It’s a bittersweet victory,” Nguyen says. Some of the businesses had already left, and those that relocated face higher rents. Losing that retail center is “a really big loss for the Vietnamese community.”
Biên Hòa, one of the few remaining Vietnamese grocery stores left in the area, won’t be able to reopen in another location because the rents are too high, she says. Pho Golden Cow has a second location in Springfield and is still looking for a space to replace its restaurant at Graham Center.
Pupusera Mana, a Salvadoran restaurant, has reopened at 2828 Graham Road in Falls Church near Route 29. Skyline Nail Supply relocated to 6280 Arlington Boulevard in the shopping center across from the Eden Center, but it’s a smaller space with higher rent.
Related story: Shop owners facing displacement seek rent relief
Jarbis Gocer, who opened Modern Shoe Repair & Cleaners in 1978, retired. He told Nguyen he would have wanted to work another two years if VHC hadn’t forced him to close his shop.
The Elviz Styles barbershop is renting space at Phenix Salon Suites at Graham Park Plaza on the other side of Arlington Boulevard. Carina’s Fashion is considering relocating out of Northern Virginia because rents are so high here.
Nguyen says she is grateful for the support from Palchik. The supervisor provided translators for the meeting with VHC and the tenants and helped the businesses connect to county resources, including a new county program that expedites the permitting process.
The Viet Place Collective hosted a community day at Graham Center in March to encourage local residents to shop there. “VHC conceding to the tenants’ demands would not have been possible without community support and all the businesses coming together,” Nguyen says.
“We’re going to hold Fairfax County accountable,” she says. The collective wants the county to think about the displacement of small businesses when another shopping area is slated for redevelopment. “Immigrant-owned small businesses are not disposable. They’re an integral part of our community.”
