88 Percent Of NYC Restaurants Couldn’t Pay Full October Rent

NEW YORK CITY — Nearly nine out of 10 New York City eateries couldn’t put their full rent on the table in October, a new survey found.

It’s what the NYC Hospitality Alliance deemed a “cold reality” as the industry group announced results from the survey Tuesday.

The survey found 88 percent of eateries couldn’t pay their full rent last month and, of those, 30 percent couldn’t pay any rent at all.

The results paint a grim picture for the restaurant industry as it struggles through the coronavirus pandemic and potential new restrictions as the virus makes a nationwide resurgence. Andrew Rigie, the NYC Hospitality Alliance’s executive director, said it made clear restaurants need aid.

“With many venues still closed, new restrictions further limiting the operating hours of those open, and cooler weather making outdoor dining less feasible, New York City’s hospitality industry simply cannot wait: The Restaurants Act and the Save Our Stages Act need to be immediately passed by the U.S. Senate and enacted by the President without delay,” he said in a statement.

The NYC Hospitality Alliance has conducted monthly surveys of whether eateries can pay rent amid the coronavirus crisis — and the number that can’t has only gone up.

The industry group counts roughly 24,000 establishments across the city with 300,000 employees, half of whom remain out of work. A restaurant collapse could fuel a growing vacancy crisis and further economic devastation, experts fear.

City officials have tried to help restaurants by expanding a popular outdoor dining, but eatery owners have pushed for an expansion of indoor dining capacity from 25 percent to 50 percent.

But such an expansion appears threatened by a recent rise in coronavirus cases across the city, state and nation. Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday issued a new 10 p.m. curfew for State Liquor Authority-licensed restaurants as a measure to stem the virus’s spread — a move that Rigie criticized as lacking important details.

Read the full survey results here.