Upper West Side Storefront Vacancies Could Drop Under New Bill

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Upper West Side City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal and Manhattan Borough President, and candidate for the UWS City Council seat, Gale Brewer have introduced new legislation in the NYC Council to help protect tenants of storefronts across the five boroughs.

The legislation is called the "Storefront Business Bill of Rights" and it would reform the commercial lease creation and renewal process.

The bill, which covers all commercial spaces that are accessible from the street, would entitle every storefront tenant with a lease longer than one month the right to renew their lease.

Here are some of the legislation's details:

• For leases of at least one year, the owner must provide the tenant with a lease renewal offer 120 days before the end of the lease or inform the tenant they do not intend to renew.
• The tenant must accept, reject or make a counteroffer within the next 30 days.
• Tenants that have made all their payments on time and have not breached their lease have the option to extend their lease for a year at a rent increase of 10 percent.
• If the landlord refuses to go along with this process, the increase to rent can drop to 7 percent.
• If a landlord has a replacement tenant ready to move in, the current tenant can only renew for 90 days.
• The tenant must tell the landlord whether they are choosing to extend the lease or leave the space no later than 20 days before the end of the original lease.

Additionally, the bill would also require the city's Department of Small Business Services to make the following resources available to the public on their website: free accounts, recordkeeping and bookkeeping resources, a searchable and interactive guide to city laws, regulations, licenses, permits, operational requirements, and required certifications for storefront businesses.

Brewer and Rosenthal have both been longtime advocates of finding solutions to the rising storefront vacancy issue.

“COVID-19 continues to exacerbate the chronic struggles small businesses face and we must act creatively and boldly to establish new rights and protections for them that puts them in a better negotiating position with a right to renew their leases,” said Brewer, in a news release.

The new piece of legislation comes on the heels of Brewer's "Saving Manhattan Small Business: A Roadmap for Recovery" and her "Broadway Vacancy Survey," which found a 78 percent increase in storefront vacancies along the entire length of Broadway during the pandemic.

Patch also carried out its own storefront vacancy count on the Upper West Side in April 2019 that found 47 stores standing empty on Broadway between West 68th and 98th Streets. The same count carried out in October of 2020 found there were now 57 shuttered businesses along the same stretch.

• Read More: Broadway In Crisis: 57 Shops Stand Empty On Just 30 UWS Blocks

"Now more than ever we need to stand with our small businesses. Losing this economic ladder limits opportunity, and contributes to New York City’s growing economic inequality," Rosenthal said in a news release. "I am very proud to partner with Borough President Brewer on this innovative "Bill of Rights," which will be especially useful for non-English speaking commercial tenants and other vulnerable business owners."