Vacant storefronts are spreading along Los Angeles’ Fairfax Avenue, where merchants blame steep rents, weak foot traffic and years of neglected public infrastructure.
The once-busy commercial strip now has empty shops, struggling businesses and landlords seeking rents that some longtime merchants say the area cannot support, the California Post reported.
A 2025 Power Commerce study put the Fairfax District’s retail vacancy rate at 19.5%. By comparison, Matthews placed the citywide Los Angeles rate at 5.83% in the second quarter of 2026, its highest level in more than a decade.
Shop owners point to a mix of rising rents, online shopping and fewer customers on foot. They also describe bad roads, poor parking and a city that allowed basic conditions to slide.
City Hall acknowledges part of the problem. Leo Daube, a spokesman for Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, said Fairfax “desperately needs repair” after a long stretch without enough infrastructure investment.
Nick Starr, who owns Cofax Coffee and grew up in the neighborhood, said local property ownership has changed. Many buildings once belonged to people who lived nearby, he said, while their descendants now focus more heavily on maximizing rent.
Starr said some owners are asking for prices that do not match the neighborhood:
“I’m aware of at least two properties where the landlords are asking what I consider Beverly Hills rents for Mid-City property. And so those properties have just been sitting vacant... in some cases for years.”
His complaint points to a basic market failure. An asking price means little when storefronts stay dark and no tenant can make the numbers work.
Jacqueline Canter, who runs Canter’s Deli and operates the Fairfax Avenue Business Association, offered a clear contrast. Her family bought the deli property, allowing her to focus on maintaining the business instead of facing a rising lease.
Canter’s Deli has operated on the block since 1953. Canter said she wants other property owners to lower rents so Fairfax can fill its vacant spaces.
Some vacancies have lasted far longer than the current slump, she said:
“I’ve seen places that have been vacant for like 30 years. I’m thinking this doesn’t make any sense to me, business-wise, to keep a property vacant for 30 years.”
Leaving commercial property unused for decades does not preserve a thriving district. It strips nearby merchants of customers and leaves fewer reasons for shoppers to return.
Supreme arrived on Fairfax Avenue in 2004 and spent 19 years there before moving to Sunset Boulevard in 2023. Its departure removed a major draw from the strip.
Power Commerce attributed a major loss of foot traffic to the departures of Supreme and The Hundreds. Its 2025 study also cited aftereffects from the social unrest that accompanied Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020.
Starr said the block has struggled to find its identity since Supreme left. Simon B., manager of the Hall of Frames sunglasses store, said returning visitors are shocked by how many shops have closed or disappeared.
Simon also blamed online shopping, but he did not let Los Angeles City Hall off the hook. He pointed to dirty surroundings, poor roads and inadequate parking.
“The city has to clean up the joint. The place is trashed. A lot of the roads are not that good, parking scenarios not that good.”
Those are basic duties, not luxury projects. Businesses already fighting online competition should not also have to overcome broken streets and a neglected public corridor.
The pressure has reached The Dime LA, a nightlife business founded in 2003 and co-owned by Andy Fiscella and Lucy Treadway. The business faced rent arrears and began searching for another location.
Fiscella said The Dime and a new partner agreed to pay a $49,000 back-rent balance by August 21. He said they had the money by August 24, one business day after the deadline, and paid a required $600 late fee.
The year of those August dates was not specified. The landlord’s identity and the final outcome of the dispute also remain unclear.
Fiscella described a business climate that has punished restaurants and bars across the area:
“The last couple years were tough on the business, and they’re tough on everybody. Look at all the restaurants, bars that are closing. I mean, we were lucky to get to this point.”
Treadway called Fairfax “so dead” and said it had suffered for a long time. She proposed an outdoor dining area and front patio that she said could help the block and the landlord’s other vacant properties.
Other established businesses have also moved. Genghis Cohen relocated within the neighborhood in 2025 after spending 42 years at its former site.
Yaroslavsky’s office secured $2 million through a state budget bill to rebuild and repave Fairfax Avenue, Daube said. The money still depended on Gov. Gavin Newsom signing the bill.
The proposed work would include beautification measures. But Daube said the street is in such poor condition that it needs rebuilding from the ground up, making funding harder to secure.
He described the connection between public neglect and the loss of customers:
“There was a lack of investment in the infrastructure along Fairfax for a long time, so the quality of the street is not good. It impacts how people feel about coming to the corridor and driving there, the whole experience.”
The council office also planned a Business Improvement District, a local zone that funds added services and improvements. Officials hoped the new landlords at neighboring Television City would participate.
Local organization has shown little urgency so far. Barbara Gallen, a board member of the Mid City West Neighborhood Council, said its economic development committee had met once in the previous 14 months.
One meeting in more than a year is a thin response to a corridor with a reported 19.5% vacancy rate. Merchants cannot restore an entire commercial district while local institutions remain mostly idle.
Daube said Yaroslavsky’s office has been laying the groundwork for a Fairfax “renaissance.” The planned street work and business district offer a path, though the funding and final shape of those plans remain unsettled.
Canter offered a more sober judgment. She said Fairfax would “never, ever, ever again be like it was” and that its former days were gone.
That does not excuse surrender. A functioning city starts with fair deals, usable streets and local government that handles the basics before another business turns off its lights.