MANASSAS — Prince William Chamber members on Monday were encouraged to change the way they think about apartments.
More apartment units could help the county reach its “moonshot” goal outlined in its 2017-2020 strategic plan of increasing its commercial tax revenues to 35 percent. County leaders also want to lower the number of commuters that leave the county for work, which is about 70 percent of the population.
“We want to make sure our residents work and play in Prince William and not commute to other jurisdictions in Virginia,” said Bismah Ahmed, director of government affairs in Virginia for the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington (AOBA).
Bismah and her associate Brian Gordon spoke at a meeting of the Economic Development Committee at the Prince William Chamber office in Manassas. Both said both millennials and baby boomers are driving the upswing in the apartment market, are living in apartments longer, are averse to buying houses, weary of the thought of another recession.
Empty nesters are also moving into apartments, as the baby boomer generation downsizes from large hard-to-maintain houses to new apartment complexes with amenities like a concierge.
Today’s apartments also attract more wealthy residents and fewer families.
“The apartment dwellers aren’t exactly who you think they are,” said Gordon.
Manassas Department of Economic Development Director Patrick Small said city’s newest downtown apartment complexes have very few school children living in them. That would disprove a myth that apartments generally attract families with multiple children, which can be a drain on city schools and services.
Residents moving in and out of the city’s apartments is also a good thing for business since it creates new customers and a renewable source of income for downtown restaurants and shops.
“There are only so many times you can eat at Monza, or buy that basket from The Things I Love,” said Small.
Manassas taxes apartment buildings as commercial buildings, which generate more revenue for the city than residential properties, he said.
Gordon said Prince William County needs about 5,000 more apartments between now and 2030 to make the jurisdiction more attractive to larger companies like Amazon, which needs a supply of affordable housing for its employees to live. The company is considering Northern Virginia as a finalist for the location of its second headquarters.
Gordon admitted Prince William’s goal of 35 percent commercial is “extremely optimistic, putting it lightly,” and said that the kind of commercial development seen in Fairfax and Arlington counties is still a long way off due to office vacancy rates in those desirable, close to Washington, D.C. jurisdictions.
“New office product continues to open there, and they fill up, leaving older offices vacant,” said Gordon.
Access to fiber lines, and cheaper land in the suburbs on which to build, however, is slowly changing the perceptions of many companies, he added.
