Once a vibrant strip of mom-and-pop outlets and tentpole retailers at the heart of Los Angeles, Fairfax Avenue’s famed business hall is now a shell of its former self.
Steps from the Farmers Market and Rick Caruso’s tourist-packed The Grove, the district, home to legendary eating places like Canter’s Deli and Genghis Cohen, should be thriving — not dealing with a practically 20% emptiness price.
But that’s merciless actuality in 2026, say determined business house owners, who are now talking out about the growing quantity of blighted, empty storefronts — as leaseholders flee stubbornly high rents at the coronary heart of one of the priciest business rental markets in the nation.
Jacqueline Canter is the co-owner of Canter’s Deli — a mainstay on the strip since the Nineteen Fifties and a holdout amid hovering emptiness charges. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
“When I was a kid, the people who owned the properties were people who lived in the area,” said Nick Starr, who grew up in the neighborhood and owns Cofax Coffee on the struggling strip.
“Now it’s their children or their grandchildren. They’re really more interested in extracting the highest rent than they are of taking care of their properties,” he instructed the California Post.
Starr thinks landlords are merely asking for too much money.
“I’m aware of at least two properties where the landlords are asking what I consider Beverly Hills rents for Mid-City property,” he said. “And so those properties have just been sitting vacant… in some cases for years.”
Some landlords are asking “Beverly Hills rents” for Mid-City property, one incredulous business proprietor instructed the California Post. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
When streetwear juggernaut Supreme arrived on Fairfax in 2004, it gave the avenue a entire new identification, bringing a youthful, hipper crowd.
After 19 years on the block, Supreme ditched Fairfax for Sunset Boulevard in 2023. Starr said the block has yet to get well from the loss.
“I think the block has been kind of trying to find its identity ever since that departure,” he defined.
Simon B., supervisor of sun shades store Hall of Frames, instructed the California Post that once Supreme left, small companies feeding off of that site visitors went away too. He requested to withhold his full last identify for privateness causes.
“People that have come here and then come again a few years later, they get shocked that so many shops are closed or gone away,” said Simon, who believes foot site visitors has also decreased due to the rising reputation of online purchasing.
“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,” he continued.
The strip has been struggling for a quantity of years now — and business house owners who’ve hung on have had enough. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
“The place is trashed,” the supervisor of Hall of Frames, a Fairfax Ave. sunglass store, instructed the California Post. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
A 2025 report revealed by Power Commerce confirmed that the Fairfax District, which is sometimes thought of as the blocks between Santa Monica Blvd. and Beverly Blvd., had a retail emptiness price of 19.5%.
The report confirmed business proprietor sentiment that the loss of Supreme — as effectively as competing streetwear model, The Hundreds — did important harm to native foot site visitors.
The report also talked about lingering aftereffects from social unrest that hit the space in the summer time of 2020, during the Black Lives Matter protests, as a contributor to the space’s downfall.
A 2025 report confirmed that the district was battling a retail emptiness price of practically 20%. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
Citywide, Los Angeles had a retail emptiness price of 5.83% in Q2 of 2026 — the highest in more than 10 years, according to another report distributed by Matthews, a business real estate company.
Just next door to Cofax, a piece of LA nightlife historical past is at risk of changing into another emptiness statistic.
The Dime LA, based in 2003 by actor and hip hop nightlife pioneer Andy Fiscella, is clinging to its Fairfax home — after a prolonged dispute with their landlord over rent.
Andy Fiscella, proprietor of The Dime, said his long-running nightlife spot is at risk of eviction. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
The Hollywood hang-out — the web site of an notorious dustup between Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Simpson in the mid-aughts — is at present searching for a new location after being instructed they’re getting the boot.
“The last couple years were tough on the business, and they’re tough on everybody,” says Fiscella, who co-owns the spot with Lucy Treadway. “Look at all the restaurants, bars that are closing. I mean, we were lucky to get to this point.”
After shedding some of their buyer base, The Dime started to fall behind on month-to-month rent funds — but said they were always sure to fork over the necessary $600 late charge.
Fiscella said the last fefw years have been powerful on the business — and the avenue. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
When hope was nearly lost, the membership and a new companion struck a deal with their landlord — to pay their $49,000 back rent steadiness by August 21.
Racing to pull collectively the money, Fiscella said they had all the money by August 24 — just one business day later.
But the landlord refused to take it, he said — and is now giving them the heave-ho.
After finally scrambling to pull collectively back rent, the landlord wouldn’t settle for it one business day previous the deadline. Fiscella said. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
Their rent hadn’t abruptly gone any larger recently, Fiscella famous — questioning aloud if someone else may have supplied more for the space.
The dissatisfied companions said they had a plan to improve the entrance of the membership — one that they hoped would revitalize a block that has now gone to bust.
“It’s so dead. It’s been suffering for a long time,” Treadway said of Fairfax.
“We have a whole outdoor dining, front patio vision that would be really wonderful for the block, and would help [the landlord’s] other properties. They have other properties sitting there vacant,” she said.
Numerous makes an attempt to communicate to The Dime’s landlord were unsuccessful.
Leo Daube, a spokesperson for LA Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, who represents the space, admitted that the avenue “desperately needs repair,” saying it indeed hit a tough patch post-pandemic.
“There was a lack of investment in the infrastructure along Fairfax for a long time, so the quality of the street is not good,” Daube instructed the California Post.
“It impacts how people feel about coming to the corridor and driving there, the whole experience,” he said.
Yaroslavsky has large plans for Fairfax, according to Daube.
The councilwoman not too long ago secured $2 million in state funding, via a finances invoice, to “completely rebuild and repave Fairfax”, including beautification measures.
LA Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky has secured $2 million in state funding to improve the avenue, a consultant instructed the California Post. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
Release of the funds are subject to Governor Newsom’s signature, Daube said.
“It’s been very difficult to secure funding for Fairfax because it’s in such rough shape. It requires a complete rebuild of the street from the ground up,” he continued.
The councilwoman’s workplace is also planning to kind an official Business Improvement District, and is hoping the new landlords at Television City — that iconic, neighboring property’s struggles have been another stressor on the strip — will be a half of it.
Jacqueline Canter poses outside her iconic Fairfax restaurant — which would benefit from an improved streetscape, which many business house owners say is holding them back. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
“We are laying the groundwork and have been laying the groundwork to really see a renaissance come back with Fairfax, and we’re really looking forward to it,” Daube continued.
So far, community-led makes an attempt to revive the hall appear to have been spotty.
The Mid City West Neighborhood Council, which covers the struggling strip of Fairfax, has over 30 board members.
But the council’s financial development committee is “not active,” according to board member Barbara Gallen — who instructed the California Post the committee has only met once in the last 14 months. Gallen declined to communicate further on the report.
Meanwhile, with The Dime on the means out, there are valuable few attracts to the space — one of them being Canter’s, the world-famous Deli that has been on the block since 1953.
“My grandfather was smart enough to buy the property when he did, and so I try to maintain,” said Jacqueline Canter, who now runs the business.
“I would love to see everybody else lower their rent so that we can have 100% no vacancies on Fairfax,” she instructed the California Post.
When she’s not overseeing her iconic pastrami-slinging operation, Canter operates as considerably of a de-facto mayor of the block — working the Fairfax Ave. Business Association, and sustaining close relationships with other business house owners.
Canter says the metropolis is typically responsive to her complaints — a lot of them over graffiti, a constant blight on the blocks.
But despite her optimism, she too decries the struggles the avenue is pressured to deal with.
Canter tries to stay optimistic, and said the metropolis can be responsive to qualify of life complaints — but acknowledges there is much work to be executed to save Fairfax. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
Fiscella, meanwhile, is wanting elsewhere for a new home for The Dime, he said. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
“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,” Canter said.
There are some glimmers of hope, however.
Genghis Cohen, another LA establishment beloved for its Chinese-American cooking, in a festive, bordello-esque environment, moved within the neighborhood in 2025 — after 42 years in their earlier home.
And newer companies on the strip, like Trophie’s Burger Club and Indian restaurant Badmaash, have stood robust for several years.
But while her grandfather’s restaurant still seems much like it did in the Nineteen Fifties, the outdated Fairfax isn’t coming back, Canter said.
“It’ll never, ever, ever again be like it was,” she sighed.
“I think those days are just gone.”
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