Eighty-seven percent of New York City bar and restaurant owners couldn’t pay their full rent in August due to losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, according the NYC Hospitality Alliance’s August Rent Report. Of that number, 34 percent were unable to pay any kind of rent at all.
According to the survey, 60 percent of landlords still haven’t waived rent during the pandemic, and of the landlords that did, less than one-third waived more than 50 percent. In addition, the survey found that 90 percent of respondents couldn’t renegotiate their lease as a result of COVID.
“Restaurants, bars and nightlife venues have been financially devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, in a statement. “Even before the pandemic when operating at 100 percent occupancy, these small businesses were struggling to stay open. Now we’re seeing widespread closures, approximately 150,000 industry workers are still out of their jobs, and the overwhelming majority of these remaining small businesses cannot afford to pay rent.”
Rigie emphasized the need for governmental intervention to help save the industry. “The hospitality industry is essential to New York’s economic and social fabric, and to ensure the survival of these vital small businesses and jobs, we urgently need rent relief, an indefinite extension of outdoor dining, a roadmap for expanded indoor dining, covered business interruption insurance, and immediate passage of the Restaurants Act by Congress.”
Related: NYC Council Passes Surcharge Bill to Help Restaurants with COVID Costs; NRA Advocates for Foodservice Relief.
from Specialty Food News https://ift.tt/2RR7HKq
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