Christopher Bruno, President & CEO/Director, Fairfax City Economic Development

Christopher Bruno
Christopher Bruno was appointed Director of Economic Development for the City of Fairfax in May of 2016. He concurrently serves as President & CEO of Fairfax City Economic Development, a partnership between the Economic Development Office and the Economic Development Authority. In these roles, Christopher is responsible for coordinating the economic development priorities of the Mayor and City Council with the Authority’s efforts. A core focus since Christopher’s arrival has been cultivating and leveraging strategic partnerships with higher education, jurisdictional partners, and developing an emphasis on establishing Fairfax City as a center for innovation and business development. In 2019, following Amazon’s announced relocation to Northern Virginia, Christopher and Fairfax City Economic Development joined other Northern Virginia jurisdictions to form the Northern Virginia Economic Development Alliance.

Since joining, Christopher has led a substantial increase in the size and scope of the economic development portfolio. Christopher has spearheaded important economic development initiatives such as Fairfax City Restaurant Week and led ReConnected, Fairfax City’s largest small business support program, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, following the development of a new five year strategic plan, Fairfax City Economic Development began focusing on strategic business investment, including retention and attraction efforts, as a core component of its work. Simultaneously, Fairfax City Economic Development also relocated out of City Hall to class-A office space to accommodate a growing staff.

Prior to joining Fairfax City, Christopher served as Agency Counsel for the New York City Department of Small Business Services. At SBS, he was responsible for working with the City’s network of over 70 business improvement districts, and for coordinating the legal components of the commercial revitalization programs as part of the City’s community development block grant program administration. Additionally, from 2012-2014 Christopher served as a senior member of the Avenue NYC team and played an integral role in the Agency’s response to Hurricane Sandy by forming two community based development organizations in the hardest hit commercial areas of New York City.

Christopher holds an undergraduate degree in history and a master’s degree in elections and campaign management from Fordham University in New York. He obtained his juris doctor degree from New York Law School and is licensed to practice law in New York and New Jersey. Christopher currently serves as a Senior Fellow for Law & Leadership at New York Law School and is on the board of the Northern Virginia Economic Development Alliance. He is also a member of the Fairfax City Manager’s Senior Leadership Team.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
M and T Bank Prison CEOs.You should know Howard by I hardly.
Let's meet Chris Bruno. He isthe director of Economic Development for Fairfax City
in Northern Virginia. Before we talkedto Chris more about all the amazing things
that are going on at Fairfax City, I first asked him to talk a
little bit about himself, where he'sfrom and his origin story. I am

(00:20):
from originally New York. I grewup here in Northern Virginia, however,
and then I left Northern Virginia togo to college. I went to Fordham
University. I have my undergraduate degreefrom there. I also have a graduate
degree from there. And then Iwent to New York Law School for my
law degree. And we got youback, we got me back. I
am happy to be I like howaways pull people back even though they move

(00:41):
away from the DMV. You andI have something in common. I am
also a Northern Virginia kid, eventhough I've moved around just about everywhere on
the planet. I'm from Falls Churchand I went to middle school and high
school in that area back in theseventies, in the early eighties, and
very fond of that area. SoI always just talked about somebody from northern
Virginia. Well, listen, we'rehere to talk about everything when it comes

(01:03):
to economic development in Fairfax City.What I do want to do first though,
to give context, Chris is alwayslike to talk to our leaders about
what they did before their current job. So, out of school, what
were your interest in? What kindof jobs did you do? Yeah,
so you know, coming out oflaw school, I knew I was very
interested in city management and city leadership, and I took a job with the

(01:26):
New York City Department of Small BusinessServices. I happened to start there exactly
one week before Hurricane Sandy struck NewYork City, and so you know,
naturally that changed the priorities of theadministration and that particular agency after the storm
hit, and so we refocused ourefforts on storm recovery and building communities and

(01:48):
strengthening small businesses. And I didthat for a couple of years, and
then I switched back into a legalcouncil role, where I had a lot
of exposure under then Mayor Deblasio,initially under Mayor Bloomberg, of exposure working
with workforce development and business development programs. In addition to the neighborhood development stuff,
typically business improvement districts, commercial districtrevitalization associates or associations. And then

(02:12):
I came back. I was recruitedback to Northern Virginia to really redefine and
redevelop our economic development efforts here inFairfax City. Well, let's talk to
you about that. In fairfac City, I can see why they were interested
in you. You've got a greatresume, You've got some great history about
this kind of a business when itcomes to economic development and growing cities with
businesses and sports and entertainment. Whatattracted you to the job? Yeah,

(02:38):
So economic development is so important,and I think that's something that's become more
important over the previous few decades,but really in the last five years,
especially magnified by the pandemic. AndI started here prior to the pandemic.
But one of the things that initiallyattracted me to working here in Fairfax City
was a the opportunity to really rebuildthe Economic Development Office and refocus the priorities

(03:01):
of that office, but also beto really leverage the unique assets that Northern
Virginia has to offer. And Isay Northern Virginia because we are a piece
of the regional puzzle, and soNorthern Virginia has assets that many other regions
in this country don't have, andso I really wanted to be a part
of figuring out how to chart FairfaxCity the city's paths forward within the context

(03:25):
of Northern Virginia. All right,well, let's talk about mission statement and
then we'll talk about all the programsand businesses and vacancy rates and business retention
and some really cool things that arehappening and also what lies in the future
as well too for you and yourteam there. But I did want to
ask you first about mission statement.What is that? Yeah? So,

(03:46):
quite simply put, our agency's jobis to make Fairfax City both regionally competitive
for businesses, but globally competitive forinternational businesses as well. Unlike many other
economic development agencies, we all sofocused on providing support. So we have
a little bit of a small businessservices component to us, where we work
really hard to establish relationships with thebusinesses that are existing here in Fairfax,

(04:10):
both retail, hospitality, but alsofirms, and to make sure they have
the tools and resources they need tocontinue growing. At the end of the
day, my goal is to makesure people know that Fairfax City is a
great place to invest in a business, to grow a business, to relocate
a business, and that's really becauseof the quality of life, the quality
of services, and the tools thatare available to those businesses here in Fairfax

(04:33):
City. So, Chris, you'retouching on a little bit. But if
I could ask you the thirty thousandfoot view, if somebody has heard about
economic development, and you know,they've heard that a bunch of times,
but they don't know exactly what itis, what exactly do you do?
So I think from a thirty thousandfoot level, it's about establishing relationships that
transform into business investment and to programming, and to creating interesting places that people

(04:59):
want to be. And those people, from a very high level might be
residents who want to move here becausethey have access and can easily connect to
places to either go spend time andmoney or to work right so that impacts
the quality of their life. Oron the other side of that coin is
people want to move their businesses herebecause there are things here, There are
reasons here that make it profitable forthem to grow and expand their business.

(05:23):
You know, Chris, it's beenvery fortuitous of me to talk to people
like you and your position from differentcounties around the DMV about how busy it
is here in the DMV. Butalso there's a lot of people coming in,
a lot of people coming out allthe time, and it's kind of
a melting pot, as you know, in the DMV. So when it
comes to businesses, whether it's small, medium, or large, I'd like

(05:44):
to just get a kind of behindthe curtain, because obviously you're cultivating to
have people come here. We've gotthese great office buildings, we've got these
great cities, we've got all thisgreat entertainment and sports and all the things
that go with it. If youcould maybe just kind of how the sausage
is made about go behind this seemsabout when you start talking to businesses about
recruiting them to come to the area. So it's actually, I'm really glad

(06:06):
you're asking that. It's an interestingprocess, and I think there are two
ways that that typically happens. First, and probably the most successful way that
that happens is that we have clearlydefined what types of industries we're looking for
in the city that build a strongeconomic base, and we have a business
investment team that we have empowered togo out and make those connections with those

(06:28):
businesses because they're interesting, because wehave tools that we can support their growth
and their future investment in our city. So that's one channel, the relationship
channel, where we're proactively going outseeking those people. The other channel is
that, frequently, and this isfairly common in the economic development world,
is that a business will approach usand say, we're on a short list
of locations where we're considering to moveand you know, dear Fairfax, we'd

(06:53):
love for you to tell us whyyou are better than all these other places.
My little secret is that Northern Virginiais an easy case to make for
why we are better or more competitive, whether it be cost of living or
housing accessibility or and you know,the biggest elephant in the room here is
the quality of our workforce and thetalent that exists in Northern Virginia. Either

(07:13):
way, we'll follow one of thosetwo paths, and we will, you
know, work our hardest to makesure that we can land that business and
ultimately lead to an announcement. Sogo Con, I know, is really
big in the DMB, and Ithink it's always going to be because where
we're at but with all that said, beside them, what kind of industries
are looking at this area that youalso like to say, I'm glad you're
coming here, this is a goodspot for you. That's a great question.
Thank you for asking that. Twoweeks ago, our City Council unanimously

(07:38):
adopted changes to our zoning ordinance thatallows us to make it easier for research
and development firms to move into FairfaxCity. And I'm really happy about this
because this is actually something that wasinitiated and led by Fairfax City Economic Development
to help clear the paths for acouple of biomedical businesses to come into the
city. So biotech is really,you know, one of those industries that

(07:59):
we really want I go after,life sciences, health. Those are the
types of businesses that we're looking atbringing into fair Fact City that will really
add some quality diversity to the typesof businesses that we have. And by
the way, some of those typesof businesses can also be gov come.
I don't want to limit the termgov con to what people typically think of
as government contracting. There are phenomenal, really unique government contractors out there that

(08:22):
do cool things like biomedical, biotech, marketing, and copywriting, and stuff
like that. So I imagine,and this is a very large question,
but I imagine that a lot ofbusinesses have different reasons why they want to
move into the area. They haveairport access, the land is inexpensive,
They like all their people in thisspot of the country. Right. There
could be many, many different reasons. But as you talk to the different

(08:46):
gov Con and the different businesses thatare come in the area, maybe the
top two, three or four eyeways, why do people come to this
area? Why do businesses come hereand flourish here? Well, so the
gov Con businesses typically come here becauseof the proximity to the federal government,
and that is an enormous industry inand of itself. For the businesses that
don't necessarily care so much about theproximity to the federal government, they look

(09:09):
at us as being probably one ofthe most perfect locations in the United States.
And I love this job for that. Within four hours, you can
get to New York, you canjump on a plane and get to Charlotte,
you can be in Miami, youcan be in Chicago. We're so
connected to not only the region butalso essentially the Eastern Seaboard, and honestly,
if you need to jump on aflight to London, we're surrounded by

(09:30):
BWI International Airport and Dallas International Airportif you need to go to the West
Coast. I think DCA National Airportis probably one of the best airports in
the country for those sort of shorterdomestic flights. But they also look at
our connectivity and this is more speakingto the region than Fairfax City specifically,
though we do benefit and champion thisas well. You know, we have

(09:52):
an excellent public transit system in Metrohere in Fairfax City. We were the
first system in the region to authorizefree public bus transport. We've been joined
by a couple of our neighbors.But that's a really good tool in moving
employees from the metro system to GeorgeMason University and throughout our city. And
then, you know I mentioned GeorgeMason University. People want to be close

(10:13):
to where the research is happening.And that's not just happening at George Mason
University. We have Virginia Tech,We've got UVA, University of Maryland is
all establishing Northern Virginia outposts. Sothere's just such a sort of knowledge powerhouse
that's happening here in Northern Virginia,and we will certainly take advantage of that
in Fairback City. Chris. Iknow for you and your team it's a
big deal to say come on here, live here, work here, build,

(10:37):
we love you. It'll be agreat relationship. But I also know
that business retention is gigantic. Yeah, so I'm going to get here and
then did you have a great time? Are you flourishing here? Can we
keep you here? That's a reallybig part of this gig isn't it.
Yeah, business retention has always beena piece of economic development, but it
has certainly grown significantly over the lastdecade or so. And I think from

(10:58):
our perspect if here in Fairfac Citysince the pandemic, Since the pandemic happened,
part of our business investment team isnow tasked with conducting outreach to businesses
that are at work here in FairfactCity, and we want to learn about
them. We want to learn whatthey're doing, what their challenges are,
what successes they've had. We wantto share in their success. But we
also want to know when their leasesexpire so that we can help them,

(11:22):
you know, hopefully stay here inFairfac City and how we do that is
we understand what their needs are andthen we will help them solve those needs
or solve those problems. And wehave a couple of different ways of doing
that. First is, you know, it may be as simple as just
connecting them with a prospective landlord thatexists here in the city. It may
also, on the other end ofthat spectrum, range from some sort of

(11:43):
financial assistance if it makes sense,all the way to job training or worker
training. So we have a numberof tools that we can play with,
but it is really critically important tous that business retention is a priority and
that we make it so. SoChris, for full context for our listeners.
At one time you were a oneman band seven and a half years
ago when you joined this whole deal, and now you've got fourteen people,

(12:07):
and I know your staff is probablygoing to grow, and everything's getting better.
We're getting through the COVID and thingsare. Whatever our new normal is
now, that's all happening. Withall that said, what kind of things
have changed beside the actual pandemic that'schanged us forever in the seven and a
half years that you've joined. What'schanged most dramatically, that's really impressed you.
So there was here in Fairfact City, there was this notion that we

(12:31):
would sort of just benefit from thesuccess of our neighbors around us, and
that is not untrue. And Ithink that in large part happens because we
have such good relationships with our neighborsin Fairfax County, in Arlington County.
And you know, I've spoken aboutthis publicly before, but Fairfac City is
a founding member of the Northern VirginiaEconomic Development Alliance. That's an alliance of

(12:52):
the other nine Northern Virginia jurisdictions,and that allows us to go out and
communicate the advantages of Northern Virginia andto actually compete on a global stage for
businesses if we're aiming to do businessattraction. Something that's changed internally in the
office is clear direction from our mayorand city Council and our commissioners that we
need to prioritize economic development more.And so we've had senior leadership come into

(13:16):
the city, both elected and appointed, and we've actually enshrined economic development as
a goal of the mayor and Citycouncil. And what that has done is
it's opened up other resources for usto grow the office here and we have
a really great team in place.You know, we've got a good,
strong business investment team, but wealso have a really good, strong programs
team which runs important programs like RestaurantWeek and those types of programs. We're

(13:41):
all moving in the same direction,you know, create this experience where people
want to have their businesses. Soit may not be business investment, but
it is business investment through programming.Well, I'm glad a couple of times
that you mentioned the mayor and thecity council, because I think it's a
great time to talk about the relationshipthat you have with them. It's important
that you have one communication trying towork together best you can. How is

(14:01):
the relationship and how do you workwith them? I work with them very
frequently, and I would say therelationship is excellent. In fact, in
all the jurisdictions that I've worked,this is the closest that I have worked
with the mayor and city council.And I'm very fortunate to work in a
jurisdiction like Fairfect City where it iscompletely independent and self governing. It's not
part of any county and so issuesof importance to economic development. I have

(14:24):
an easy pipeline of bringing them directlyto the mayor and city Council or our
appointed commissioners on the economic development authorityside, and it really has created this
environment where we are all partners ineconomic development in ways that you know,
typically elected officials are not. Theseelected officials here and our mayor in particular
understand that these are valuable programs andthat these priorities need to be worked on,

(14:48):
and that they don't just happen becauseof the environment of your neighbors.
You actually have to actively focus onthem. Chris, something I'd like to
ask all our leaders in this seriesis about maybe a great story and something
that was telling that happened over thelast seven and a half years. I
want to put a pin in thatdisc for a second. You can think
about that. But we also tellour listeners and people who follow this series
that it's not always a unicorns andrainbows all the time. So with all

(15:11):
that said, what kind of challengesare you having right now? So you
know, we are having a lotof successes in Fairfact City, but we
are a small jurisdiction and our resourcesare not on the same level of New
York City or Chicago or Fairfax County, right, And so sometimes we'll go
out and compete for a business andit won't come here, it'll select another

(15:31):
jurisdiction, you know. Or sometimessomething just doesn't go the way we want
it to go, and that's ultimatelyfine, you know, it happens,
but we work through it. Youknow. One of our advantages, honestly
is that we are a small city. It's very unusual for someone to be
able to be talking with site selectorsand to have the site selector pick up

(15:52):
the phone and connect it directly withthe Director of Economic Development, who within
ten minutes can connect them with themayor of the city. You know.
Typically that has to wind its wayup through a number of agencies and through
scheduling people. So our advantage ofbeing small here really helps us. But
sometimes being small is a disadvantage andwe have to figure out how to work
within that as well. So,as mentioned, in the seven a half
years that you've been in the job, I imagine there's a lot of wonderful

(16:15):
stories that you said to yourself,this is why we get up every day.
So is there And you don't haveto name anybody specifically if you don't
want to, But is there somethingthat really touched you where you had a
relationship that came to town and somethingreally special happened and said, you know
what, we knocked it out ofthe park that day. So this is
not typically a story that comes upon general economic development radar, but it's

(16:36):
a really small business in Fairfact Cityand it kind of warms my heart every
time I think about it. Cameron'sCoffee and Chocolates. They're located here in
Fairfax Circle. If you are everin Fairfact City, I highly recommend stopping
but stopping by. It is anonprofit that helps adults with developmental challenges obtain
jobs, and it proves that theyare valuable members of our workforce and that

(16:59):
everybody should be treated with dignity,and they do a great job at doing
that. I love and we've supportedthem through a number of our nonprofit grants
and honestly, you know, evenif we're not issuing a grant or working
directly with someone, we can celebratesomeone and so we've done a lot of
that with this as well. Agreed, thanks for sharing. I do want
to talk about the future, andI don't want to assume how many years
you're looking ahead and I know there'sonly so many you can share with us

(17:21):
too when it comes to plans,But I know that economic development is always
looking ahead to the next five,ten, maybe even twenty years sometimes.
But what you can share with us, Chris, what's in the future,
because I'm very excited. Obviously thesustainability is there, but the growth is
coming very quickly now too, absolutely, and I'm glad you asked about that.
Sitting right here on my desk isour five year strategic work Plan for

(17:42):
Economic Development, which is the firsttime that our office has ever gone through
this process, and it's really definedthe types of businesses that we should be
looking at, the industries that weshould be looking at, but also how
we can respond to the growth inthis region. I firmly believe I am
not just saying this that Northern Virginiais probably one of the best regions in

(18:03):
this country for business investment, butalso for people moving to it to have
lives, to raise families, andto build businesses. You can look at
the quality of our school systems,the connectivity of our region, and so
I think we're building programs now andwe're working with businesses that will actually take
advantage of all of these things andreally help this region continue to take off.

(18:26):
Well here here well said, I'veactually lived in all three places in
the DMV, and I'm very fondof all of them. This area is
just fantastic. And I'm studing likea commercial too, but it really is.
And this is my fourth time livingin this area and I just love
it. So I'm glad you talkedabout that. Well, Chris, I
want to give the floor to you. In this series, we kind of
get some final thoughts and some takeawaysthat you want to have for a listener.
So take it away and just tellus some final thoughts about what we

(18:49):
should leave with here. You know, I come to this job very excited
about what economic dev professionals can do. And I think generally people don't necessarily
know what economic development does, andit's kind of a small world, but
it is such an important and criticalpiece to the development of our cities and

(19:11):
our regions. And I think aswe are starting to see that having strategies
in place and work plans in placeallows us to really make some serious progress
and to actually chart the course andto define the futures of those cities in
the regions. And so that's whatkeeps me coming back to this job,
but also getting to work with thegreat staff that we have, not only
here in Fairfax City, so Ithink they are among the smartest and the

(19:34):
brightest, but also in the region, specifically here in Northern Virginia. And
so that is my final thought.I'm just very lucky and glad to be
working in this position. All right, Chris, let's give a website.
I've been on it. There's alot of information on there, but it's
really cool too, because there's somuch on there to learn about Fairfax City
that you can dig into it andreally see and listen. I know that
Chris is looking for the best thebest some time, so there could be

(19:56):
a career operaty down the road ifsomebody wants to check all of that out.
How they do that, Chris?Yeah, So Fairfaxcityconnected dot com is
my agency's website. We do postjobs on there, and I hope people
do look at those, but wealso post a lot of our news stories
on there where you can see someof the really exciting things that are happening
in Fairfax City, some of theexciting partnerships and innovative programs that we have

(20:18):
running as well well. Chris.I can't tell you how much I appreciate
your valuable time. I know howbusy you are, but I'm also thrilled
to talk to people like you andpeople from your team of working hard to
grow these areas, to make themthe best of the best, so people
want to live here, flourish,have their businesses here, and stay here
for as long as they'd like tobe here. So thank you for that,
really appreciate it. Continue success,and thank you so much for joining

(20:40):
us on CEOs you should know.Thank you, Dennis, and thank you
to M and T Bank as well. Our community partner, M and T
Bank supports CEOs you should know.Is part of their ongoing commitment to building
strong communities, and that starts bybacking the businesses within them. As a
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