Nicole Toulouse outlines economic-development plan to strengthen Vienna’s commercial tax base

Nicole Toulouse, Vienna’s newly introduced economic development director, presented an introductory briefing to the Town Council on March 3 and framed her office as a proactive, non‑regulatory partner for local businesses.

Toulouse told the council she views the department’s role as “to enhance your commercial tax base,” and walked members through the town’s major non‑residential revenue streams: commercial real‑estate assessments, state sales tax, business‑license (BPOL) taxes and bank‑stock taxes. She cited rough annual figures during the presentation — for example, “meals tax is substantial in almost $3,500,000 of revenue per year” — and illustrated how tenanting and vacancy materially change a parcel’s assessment and the town’s receipts.

Why it matters: The town’s smaller footprint and revenue mix mean targeted outreach can protect and grow town services without increasing residential tax burdens. Toulouse said keeping office and medical tenants — not just retail — is a priority because those uses contribute materially to assessments and local spending.

Toulouse described a mix of tactics to retain and attract revenue‑generating businesses. She emphasized proactive business‑retention work using CoStar to track upcoming lease expirations and scheduling business‑retention and expansion (BRE) visits “about a year and a half out” from lease end dates. She listed outside resources the town intends to leverage, including the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), ICAP for technology commercialization, APEX for government‑contracting assistance and SBIR/STTR federal funding programs.

She also outlined marketing and place‑making efforts to capture more transient spending — restaurant week, wayfinding and a tourism‑oriented Explore Vienna social channel — and distinguished those promotions from one‑time ARPA‑funded projects. “I would not like to be a regulator. I want to be a smiling face when I talk to businesses,” Toulouse said, describing an outreach‑first approach.

Council reaction and follow‑up: Council members praised the presentation and asked for clearer, paginated materials and recurring metrics in future briefings. Several members urged that quarterly packets include vacancy and lease‑rate trends, a five‑year meals‑tax projection and a breakdown of retail versus office vacancy. One council member noted an earlier 17% vacancy figure likely came from CoStar results that had not been geofenced to the town proper; Toulouse agreed that data source definitions matter.

Toulouse flagged a recent business departure — Capital Area Pediatrics closing its Vienna location — as an example of why early outreach is important. Town manager said the economic‑development office will return with a quarterly update in June.

What’s next: Staff will provide corrected, paginated presentation materials and include the recommended metrics in future quarterly reports. Toulouse said the department will use targeted BRE outreach, local partnerships (including Visit Fairfax) and programmatic marketing to support both retention and new‑business attraction.