The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors are slated to hold an Oct. 22 public hearing to discuss extending the lease of space in a county-owned property in Merrifield to Inova Health Care Services.
The 5-acre parcel at 8221 Willow Oaks Corporate Drive is home to the Sharon Bulova Center for Community Health, a five-story, 160,000-square-foot facility that opened in 2015. It primarily houses operations of the Community Services Board (CSB) and county government’s Diversion First program.
Inova since 2015 has leased half of the center’s top floor from the county, using the 19,800-square-foot space to provide community-wellness services that complement CSB’s mission. These include substance-abuse-disorder treatment, outpatient mental-health services, an urgent-psychiatric-care walk-in clinic and a round-the-clock call center for Inova’s emergency departments.
Inova’s original lease at the center was for 10 years at a fixed rental rate of $20.44 per square foot. Combined with operating expenses equating to about $6 per square foot, Inova paid the county a total of $520,000 per year in rent.
The new amendment would extend the lease term for five years and five months until Dec. 31, 2030. The fair-market value for rent during that term would be $25 per square foot, but rather than provide an allowance for substantial building improvements, the county is proposing to charge $22 per square foot for base rent and $8 per square foot for operating expenses.
The county government would receive about $600,000 in rent during the first full year of lease payments, officials said. The lease rate would increase 2.5 percent per year and the county would offer a five-month rent abatement.
