Even so, there doesn’t seem to be much hope among restaurateurs. About 30 percent think it will be 7 to 12 months before business conditions return to normal for their restaurant, while 35 percent think it will be more than a year. About 14 percent believe business conditions will never return to normal.
Despite indoor dining capacity being upped in New York City and warmer weather ahead, close to half of restaurateurs think things will get worse before they get better: 46 percent believe their sales will decline in February and March from January’s levels.
The statewide survey echoes the problems being faced by restaurateurs in the five boroughs. A recent report by the New York City Hospitality Alliance found that 92 percent of restaurants surveyed could not make December rent. About 37 percent have deferred rental payments, which could lead to larger problems down the line.
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But elements of the city’s bureaucracy are gearing up to fight parts of the legislation. At a City Council hearing on Monday, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and the Department of Small Business Services pushed back on the proposals.
Consumer Protection Commissioner Lorelei Salas opposed what she considered would be a dilution of the Consumer Protection Law, which Salas argued has been part of the city code since 1969.
“Diluting the CPL and not improving its protections will have tremendously negative consequences for the most vulnerable of our city’s constituents and stifle our agency mission during a time of extreme crisis,” she said.
(iStock/Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal)
In an effort to survive the financial fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, thousands of New York City restaurateurs entered into a perilous agreement with their landlords: deferring rent in the hopes that they’d be able to pay when their fortunes improved.
Thirty-seven percent of restaurants have deferred their rent due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a recent report by the New York City Hospitality Alliance. But that pales in comparison to the number of restaurateurs who could not pay part or all of their rent: 92 percent in December, a figure that has risen steadily since the first Covid-19 lockdown was imposed last spring.
More and more New York City restaurants can’t pay the rent, another sign the industry’s struggles are getting worse during the pandemic. The New York City