NYC Small Businesses On The Brink Cast Hopes On New PPP Loans And Rent Deals

This story was originally published on February 11 2021 by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning.

Before the pandemic struck New York 11 months ago, Janine Labriola’s Ditmas Park fitness business was thriving.

A studio she started five years ago for classes and personal training was solidly profitable, and the self-service gym she later opened nearby was building clientele.

Labriola shuttered the fitness studio for good over the summer and is able to keep the gym open only because her landlord agreed to a deal where she is paying only half the rent. Most of her customers at Park Fitness BK are either too afraid of COVID-19 to come to the Coney Island Avenue gym or have left the city for elsewhere.

Some days, she signs up a new member but often two cancel.

“I cut my losses and closed a thriving business,” she said. “I don’t even know how much debt I am in.”

As the shutdown that sent the city’s economy into a free fall nears the one-year mark, prospects for small businesses in New York City are worsening, new data shows. Businesses that are hanging on are doing so because their landlords have decided some rent is better than no tenant — and because a new round of federal Paycheck Protection Program loans offers hope of paying some bills until the economy rebounds.

“The only reason we have survived because our landlord has deferred and forgiven rent,” said Fonda Sara of Zuzu’s Petals, a 50-year florist shop in Park Slope. “As long as my landlord values my tenancy I will be fine.”

Meanwhile, the de Blasio administration says it has provided 108,000 services, running from help getting money to webinars for local small businesses. It too is betting on the latest PPP loans, which include funds set aside for very small businesses, to bolster many owners.

“The Biden administration is a breath of fresh air,” said Jonnel Doris, commissioner of the city’s department of Small Business Services

‘No One Came Back’

Despite a small uptick during the holiday shopping season, small business revenue is one again slipping toward the March lows, according to a recent report from City Comptroller Scott Stringer. Hit hardest are firms in Manhattan deserted by tourists, office workers and many residents.

Revenue there is down 65% compared with the same period a year ago, with declines of 40% in Queens, about 35% in the Bronx and Brooklyn and 22% in Staten Island.

The citywide average 50% decline is similar to Washington, and slightly better than Boston and San Francisco, both of which have the same ills as Manhattan.

But other cities are doing better, including Philadelphia, where the drop is only 29%.

“The data confirms the inescapable realities and experiences of New York City’s small business community on the frontlines of the pandemic,” said Randy Peers, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “Revenues are in free-fall and the significant and constantly evolving government COVID-19 restrictions are hurting businesses.”

The Department of Small Business Services says New York City has about 230,000 businesses with 125 employees or fewer employing about 1.3 million workers. Counting a small business as any with 20 employees or less puts the number at about 200,000.

Peers notes that 73% of small business employees in New York City are people of color, with more than half of all jobs in the sector held by immigrants, documented and otherwise — populations that have been hit hard on all levels by the pandemic.

Thompson Chemists once employed 17 people at their community drug store in SoHo. Now Jolie Alony and her husband, Gary, run the place with one part-time employee. They keep the door locked and let customers individually.

“All our regular customers are out of here,” Jolie Alony said. “They left in March for the Hamptons, Rhode Island or Florida.”

She said customers had told her they would return after the presidential election, but “no one came back.”

The couple…