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A string of closures of longtime Upper West Side businesses has renewed attention on a City Council bill about commercial leases that had a hearing last month.
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As we reported, Jake’s Dilemma, the 32-year-old Amsterdam Avenue sports bar, is closing this month. It is far from the only longtime neighborhood business to go. We also broke the news that Good Enough to Eat was closing after 45 years, and reported on the shutdown of Edgar’s Cafe after nearly four decades. Gothamist, which pulled the closures together into a broader look at the neighborhood’s storefronts, also noted Cheesy Pizza (open more than 36 years) and Barzini’s (open more than 43 years).The bill is Councilmember Gale Brewer’s Intro 90, the “Storefront Owner’s Bill of Rights.” The Council’s Small Business Committee held a hearing on it Sept. 16, and in a Sept. 18 email to constituents Brewer said the bill grew out of a task force she convened as Manhattan Borough President, made up of small business owners, commercial tenants and landlords. Its report, “Small Business Big Impact,” covered fines and fees, rents, scaffolding, long-term vacancies and financing.
Brewer wrote that the lack of transparency and communication in commercial leasing contributes to instability and closures, and that the bill would set clear standards for lease transparency and renewal.
According to the City Council’s legislative record, the bill would require written leases for ground- and second-floor retail tenancies longer than a year. Owners would have to hand over a certificate of occupancy, two years of historical utility and tax costs, projected expenses and a 10-year violation and construction history before a lease is signed. They would also have to give tenants a renewal offer or notice of intent within set windows, with rent increases on extensions capped at 7 to 10 percent depending on when notice is given.
The city’s Small Business Services commissioner would publish model leases in the citywide designated languages. Violations could bring civil penalties of up to 3 percent of a property’s assessed value, plus damages and legal fees. The bill has nine co-sponsors and was laid over in committee after the hearing.
Gothamist also reports that Councilmember Virginia Maloney has floated a Legacy Business Registry for shops open 20 years or more, paired with a city preservation fund, and that leaders quoted in the piece point to rising costs, tariffs, inflation and a lack of succession planning as other pressures on small businesses.
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Business owners say lease rules are only part of the squeeze. Restaurateur Jeremy Wladis told ABC7, “The economy is crushing us, tourism is crushing us,” and pointed to delivery-app fees and post-pandemic shifts in customer habits. His Harvest Kitchen has employed more than 40 people for nearly two decades and faces an uncertain future. Broker Doug Kleiman said the bill could help smaller tenants, but “when a large footprint store goes out, it’s not easy to lease.” Andrew Rigie of the NYC Hospitality Alliance said property taxes also need attention.Gothamist, citing a city comptroller report, says nearly 12,700 small businesses operating in 2020 are now vacant storefronts citywide, while about 10,700 spaces that were empty in 2019 now house new businesses. ABC7 reports parts of the Upper West Side rank among the city’s highest for commercial vacancy.
None of this is new. Versions of the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, which would have guaranteed commercial tenants a right to renew, have circulated at City Hall since the 1980s without ever becoming law. Brewer has floated her own lease-renewal proposals for years, including an earlier “Storefront Business Bill of Rights” in 2021 with renewal terms strikingly close to those in Intro 90. And neighbors have been organizing around empty storefronts since at least 2019, when UWS Save Our Stores began counting vacancies along Broadway and pressing for action.
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