Exclusive | LA’s Fairfax District now a ghost town of empty storefronts — as biz owners blast ‘greedy’ landlords squeezing survivors

Once a vibrant strip of mom-and-pop shops and tentpole retailers at the center of Los Angeles, Fairfax Avenue’s famed business corridor 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 restaurants like Canter’s Deli and Genghis Cohen, should be thriving — not facing a nearly 20% vacancy rate.

But that’s cruel reality in 2026, say desperate business owners, who are now speaking out about the growing number of blighted, empty storefronts — as leaseholders flee stubbornly high rents at the heart of one of the priciest commercial rental markets in the country.  

“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 told the California Post.

Starr thinks landlords are simply 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.”

When streetwear juggernaut Supreme arrived on Fairfax in 2004, it gave the street a whole new identity, bringing a younger, hipper crowd. 

After 19 years on the block, Supreme ditched Fairfax for Sunset Boulevard in 2023. Starr said the block has yet to recover from the loss.

“I think the block has been kind of trying to find its identity ever since that departure,” he explained.

Simon B., manager of sunglasses store Hall of Frames, told the California Post that once Supreme left, small businesses feeding off of that traffic went away too. He asked to withhold his full last name for privacy reasons.

“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 traffic has also decreased due to the increasing popularity of online shopping.

“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. 

A 2025 report published by Power Commerce showed that the Fairfax District, which is typically thought of as the blocks between Santa Monica Blvd. and Beverly Blvd., had a retail vacancy rate of 19.5%.

The report confirmed business owner sentiment that the loss of Supreme — as well as competing streetwear brand, The Hundreds — did significant damage to local foot traffic.

The report also mentioned lingering aftereffects from social unrest that hit the area in the summer of 2020, during the Black Lives Matter protests, as a contributor to the area’s downfall.

Citywide, Los Angeles had a retail vacancy rate of 5.83% in Q2 of 2026 — the highest in more than 10 years, according to another report distributed by Matthews, a commercial real estate company.

Just next door to Cofax, a piece of LA nightlife history is at risk of becoming another vacancy statistic.

The Dime LA, founded in 2003 by actor and hip hop nightlife pioneer Andy Fiscella, is clinging to its Fairfax home — after a lengthy dispute with their landlord over rent. 

The Hollywood haunt — the site of an infamous dustup between Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Simpson in the mid-aughts — is currently hunting for a new location after being told 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 losing some of their customer base, The Dime began to fall behind on monthly rent payments — but said they were always sure to fork over the mandatory $600 late fee. 

When hope was almost lost, the club and a new partner struck a deal with their landlord — to pay their $49,000 back rent balance by August 21.

Racing to pull together the cash, 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.

Their rent hadn’t suddenly gone any higher lately, Fiscella noted — wondering aloud if someone else may have offered more for the space.

The disappointed partners said they had a plan to improve the front of the club — 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 attempts to speak to The Dime’s landlord were unsuccessful.

Leo Daube, a spokesperson for LA Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, who represents the area, admitted that the street “desperately needs repair,” saying it indeed hit a rough 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 told the California Post. 

“It impacts how people feel about coming to the corridor and driving there, the whole experience,” he said.

Yaroslavsky has big plans for Fairfax, according to Daube.

The councilwoman recently secured $2 million in state funding, via a budget bill, to “completely rebuild and repave Fairfax”, including beautification measures.

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 office is also planning to form 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 part of it. 

“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 attempts to revive the corridor seem 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 economic development committee is “not active,” according to board member Barbara Gallen — who told the California Post the committee has only met once in the last 14 months. Gallen declined to speak further on the record.

Meanwhile, with The Dime on the way out, there are precious few draws to the area — 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 told the California Post.

When she’s not overseeing her iconic pastrami-slinging operation, Canter operates as somewhat of a de-facto mayor of the block — running the Fairfax Ave. Business Association, and maintaining close relationships with other business owners. 

Canter says the city is often responsive to her complaints — a lot of them over graffiti, a consistent blight on the blocks.

But despite her optimism, she too decries the struggles the street is forced to deal with. 

“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 institution beloved for its Chinese-American cooking, in a festive, bordello-esque atmosphere, moved within the neighborhood in 2025 — after 42 years in their previous home.

And newer businesses on the strip, like Trophie’s Burger Club and Indian restaurant Badmaash, have stood strong for several years. 

But while her grandfather’s restaurant still looks much like it did in the 1950s, the old 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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