Downtown Richmond Commercial Facts & Figures

​

• In 2020, the Downtown Master Plan area’s total assessed value was $9.8 billion (taxable and tax-exempt properties) or $3 billion per square mile compared to $0.565 billion per square mile for the rest of the city.
• Downtown represents 35% of the City’s total assessed value. Yet, Downtown has a remarkable concentration of the City’s real estate assets on only 5% of the City’s land area.
• Between 2000 to 2019 the Taxable Real Estate Assessments increased in value by $15.2 billion, a 160% increase.
• Real Estate tax revenues more than doubled, growing by $143 million, a 130% increase.
• Personal property tax revenue increased by $21.3 million, a 50% increase.

Office

• 76% of office space in the City of Richmond is located downtown.
• Downtown has nearly 2,800 locally owned businesses, which account for 34% of local businesses citywide.
• Downtown continues to serve as home to large companies, including two from the Fortune 100, Dominion Energy and New Market Corporation. Other Fortune 1000 companies are headquartered in the region, such as Altria, CarMax, and Owens & Minor, most of which still have a presence downtown.
• CoStar, who recently purchased $150 million of property along the Riverfront and announced earlier in 2021 that they were hiring 200 more jobs and leasing 51,000 SF of office space at Riverfront Plaza.
• Large firms—those with more than 250 employees—and enterprises in business more than 11 years account for the bulk of jobs in downtown.
• Downtown has 10 incubator or coworking spaces, about half of the citywide total.

Retail

• Downtown Richmond has one-fourth of the City’s retail businesses (478) and one-third of its restaurants and bars (252).
• Total annual downtown Richmond retail sales of $526 million represent 23% of the city’s retail sales.
• Non-Downtown residents account for 55% of that economic activity.

Residential

• The number of residential units downtown has skyrocketed, increasing by 71%.
• Downtown currently has 1,924 units under construction, for a total of 3,079 in the pipeline.
• Downtown accounts for more than 60% of all the city’s new residential construction, and almost half of the units in the pipeline for the city are downtown.
• At $1,110, the average downtown rent is higher than the citywide average of $979, but it generally aligns with regional rents.

Tourism

• 70% of the city-wide hotel rooms are located in downtown Richmond and includes 16 properties and a total of 2,581 rooms.
• The city center’s restaurants, bars and breweries generate a combined $221 million in annual sales 89% of which come from non-residents. This underscores the importance of the tourism industry to support our hotels and small businesses.
• More than 40 venues offering live entertainment, including 17 theatres.
• 661 Historic Districts
• 168 Public Art Installations
• 25 Parks and Natural Areas

Be sure to check out some of downtown Richmond's demographics and market data and don't miss out on the latest news around downtown Richmond's development.