Though outdoor dining has reopened and indoor dining is scheduled for the end of the month, it still may not be enough for NYC restaurants to make rent.
And that’s just what this new report from the New York Hospitality Alliance has confirmed.
The report surveyed over 450 restaurants, bars and nightlife establishments across NYC, and discovered that 87% of businesses were unable to pay full rent in August. 34% could not pay any rent at all. This has only grown over the past few months, with 83% unable to pay full rent in July and 80% in June.
They also found that 60% of landlords have not waived rent during the pandemic, and even those that did only 1/3 waived more than half of rent. 90% of the business owners surveyed said they were simply unable to renegotiate their lease due to COVID-19.
Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, said in a press release detailing the report:
Restaurants, bars and nightlife venues have been financially devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. 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. 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.
The NYC Hospitality Alliance is a not-for-profit association representing restaurants and nightlife establishments in the five boroughs. You can view the full report yourself here.
See also: Remembering 20 NYC Restaurants & Bars That Have Permanently Closed Due To COVID-19
featured image source:Photo by Khachik Simonian on Unsplash