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The Southeast Fairfax Development Corporation is expanding its Faces of ONE public art and placemaking initiative into a marketing campaign for Richmond Highway businesses and the broader corridor.

SFDC plans to introduce the expanded initiative to the public and local businesses on Aug. 13, 2026. The campaign includes small-business and corridor marketing, a new website, and locally produced photography and videography. SFDC also plans to spend more than $100,000 on digital advertising over the next year, according to the campaign’s current plan.

The effort builds on the original Faces of ONE project, which placed 10 public sculptures along Richmond Highway and included murals and other placemaking elements. The expanded campaign is being developed as transportation and redevelopment projects move forward along the corridor.

“We wanted to create a kind of campaign that unifies the corridor and the businesses on it to be able to help give them an identity and to help share really the story of the area with the larger region and let people know that it’s more than just a highway, a roadway, but it’s really a community,” said Evan Kaufman, executive director of SFDC.

The campaign has photographed Huntley Meadows Park and businesses including Chalkboard Wings & BBQ, Mamma’s Kitchen and Sherwood Gourmet Deli for planned advertising and social media content.

SFDC developed the expanded campaign after working during the prior year with the Fairfax County Department of Economic Initiatives. Kaufman said the organization’s goal is to support the local economy and businesses in the Richmond Highway area.

“We’re really going to try to boost the area and its identity within the larger DMV region and really tell the story of who we are and why this area is so important to the region and the amazing assets that it has,” Kaufman said.

The campaign is intended to support local business retention and present Richmond Highway as a destination for transit, recreation, dining, tourism and living. Its organizers also want to introduce residents and people from across the region to businesses and other spaces along the corridor.

“We’re introducing locals to spaces that they can go in their own community, but then also the larger region as a whole, introducing them to the offerings that the Richmond Highway has, and really starting to put Richmond Highway on the map as a destination for not only transit, but for recreation, dining, tourism, and living,” Kaufman said.

The marketing effort comes as Fairfax County and the Virginia Department of Transportation advance major transportation plans. The county aims to begin Richmond Highway bus rapid transit construction in 2028, contingent on securing additional funding. VDOT is advancing a Richmond Highway widening project whose first segment could begin as soon as mid-2027.

Fairfax County supervisors approved the Embark Richmond Highway vision in 2018. The vision seeks a multimodal corridor with potential mixed-use development.

The campaign’s expected effect on business revenue, customer traffic and retention has not been independently demonstrated in the supplied material.