Bed-Stuy Coffee Shop Among NYC Businesses 'On Brink Of Collapse'

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — For Furman's Coffee owner Emmanuel DeJesus, a year spent working 90-hour weeks to barely break even has been about more than simply keeping the business afloat.

The coffee shop — which he opened in 2017 — is a connection to the home where he grew up, near his grandmother's coffee farm in the Dominican Republic.

But perhaps even more so, it's his family's anchor to place he's called home for the last 27 years, in Brooklyn. DeJesus opened the Nostrand Avenue shop with two decade's worth of savings from working in the New York City restaurant industry.

"I took all the money I had saved and put it into the business — basically, if I'm forced to close I guess it's like I lose it all and go somewhere different from New York City," DeJesus said. "My whole life is at stake."

Those stakes have become painfully real particularly in the last few months as DeJesus struggles to hold onto the business.

After six months of barely making rent payments in 2020 by running the shop largely without his nine-person staff, DeJesus hasn't been able to pay his rent since September.

With foot traffic still down 70 percent of what it was pre-pandemic, he is now looking at closing the business within the next few months — unless drastic something changes.

"It's really hard to answer what would have to happen [to stay open]," DeJesus told Patch. "We'll get one really good day and then the rest of the week nothing's coming. It's tough to be able to gauge."

DeJesus is far from the only business owner contemplating a fate that has claimed countless businesses during the financial strain of the coronavirus pandemic.

Even as New York City's economy gears up to reopen, it may be too little too late for a large portion of businesses, particularly minority-owned businesses like Furman's Coffee, according to a new study.

Nonprofit LISC NYC found that nearly three quarters of minority-owned small businesses fear that they will be forced to close permanently if they do not receive immediate financial relief.

One in five of those businesses, like Furman's, say they expect to close within the next three months.

“To see so many of these minority-owned small businesses on the brink of collapse should be of grave concern to anyone hoping for economic recovery anytime soon,” said Valerie White, executive director of LISC NYC. “These businesses make up the backbone of communities across the city, and if these small businesses don’t survive the pandemic, then countless New York City commercial corridors and neighborhoods will continue to suffer.

LISC NYC's surveyed more than 130 minority-owned small businesses across the city for the report, which also looked at how many businesses lost staff or weren't ablate pay rent in February.

The survey also found that about 40 percent of the minority-owned businesses didn't receive help through the federal Paycheck Protection Program.

In DeJesus' case, his business didn't qualify since, as a new business, he had not been profitable for long enough before the pandemic.

LISC, which runs its own recovery fund, has been advocating for grants, rent relief, marketing support, the extension of the rent moratorium and other measures to help the businesses stay afloat.

“The fact of the matter is that major inequities existed long before the pandemic began for these businesses, so it’s crucial that elected officials and stakeholders prioritize these businesses if we want to turn the corner on this economic crisis,” White said.

A link to their full survey results can be found here.