NY Times: They Helped New York Bounce Back. Now Their Rents Are Surging.
“As these businesses get drowned out by this tide of rising rent, culture disappears,” said Paula Segal, a lawyer with TakeRoot Justice, a nonprofit legal services group.
“As these businesses get drowned out by this tide of rising rent, culture disappears,” said Paula Segal, a lawyer with TakeRoot Justice, a nonprofit legal services group.
Paula Z. Segal, senior staff attorney at TakeRoot Justice, called commercial landlording in New York “the last unregulated industry.”
Rents came down for, like, a month or two, and then everyone started trying to make up for what they lost,” said Paula Segal, an attorney with TakeRoot Justice, which offers legal services to small commercial businesses.
Small businesses often given cheaper rents for the first year of a lease as an incentive, but then “it doubles in year two because the landlord is trying to make up what they lost during Covid.”
The City has the legal authority to suspend rents for commercial tenants impacted by the pandemic and stabilize commercial rents in the long term. By Paula Z. Segal, Cheryl Walker and Catherine Humphreville May 15, 2020 Having reduced her restaurant to
New executive order from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo amending rules for commercial and residential evictions during the coronavirus pandemic could be particularly challenging for small businesses, according to senior staff attorney at TakeRoot Justice.