The pandemic is decimating the restaurant industry. But some landlords aren't budging.
As soon as Ted Hopson, chef and co-owner of the Bellwether in Studio City, California, heard the governor talking about coronavirus in early March, he knew it would be bad for business. On March 16, Hopson sat down and emailed his landlord. Business was down, he wrote. “We are hoping you would be willing to work with us, maybe defer our rent to a later date, since we have zero income right now.” Two days later he got a response in the form of an official letter included in an email attachment.
The Portland Hunt + Alpine Club in Portland, Maine closed on March 16, two days before the official order came from the government: The cocktail bar is only 2,500 square feet and was designed to fit roughly 60 customers close together; social distancing was out of the question. Staff was able to apply for unemployment before the remainder of the restaurant industry, says Andrew Volk, who owns the restaurant with his wife.
Luckily for Button, on April 9, WPPM came up with a plan for its restaurant tenants: total rent abatement for May, and in June, WPPM would allow each tenant’s security deposit to cover their rents — with the understanding that the latter would eventually be repaid. Many other landlords are simply offering momentary relief. Nick Cho, founder of Wrecking Ball Coffee, says all three of his landlords gave him a variation of “pay 50 percent now with the balance due either next year” or at “some unknown future date,” as one landlord wrote in an email Cho shared with Eater. “The fundamental idea is that eventually we will pay 100 percent of our rent,” Cho says. Landlords may not get paid now, but eventually they’ll be made whole.
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