With Bed-Stuy becoming the new ground zero for Brooklyn gentrification including the dislocation of numerous longtime locally owned and run small businesses, City Councilman Robert Cornegy Jr. is being put to the test.
And how Cornegy, who is chair of the Council’s Small Business Committee, handles that test will have a long-lasting affect on small businesses – not only in his home district of Bed-Stuy – but across the city.
“Right now, local laws truly are not strong enough to meet many of the challenges small retail businesses are facing. That’s why I’ve worked to develop a bill to extend anti-harassment protections to commercial tenants, which will be introduced this month. And I’m convinced that the proposal to protect businesses from closure by forcing commercial lease renewals to be mediated and temporarily extended is a workable solution to mitigating harm, so that the loss of a single space doesn’t mean a viable business is destroyed,” said Cornegy.
The measures that Cornegy is proposing are two-fold. The first is a city council resolution he introduced earlier this year calling on the the state to establish a property tax credit for commercial landlords who voluntarily limit the amount of rent increases to small business tenants upon lease renewal.
The second bill that Cornegy is about to introduce is based on Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer’s March 2015 report, Small Business, Big Impact. The major recommendations of that bill includes having ground floor storefronts up for lease renewal go into non-binding mediation with landlords. If the mediation fails, storefront shopkeepers are given a one year extension with a 15% increase before they are forced out.
Meanwhile, Bronx City Councilwoman Annabel Palma is the prime sponsor of the second competing bill, the Small Business Jobs Survival Act (SBJSA), which gives all commercial tenants a right to lease renewal and a right to a minimum 10 year lease under binding arbitration.
Both bills have pros and cons that are expected to be hotly debated in the coming months, but in the meantime Cornegy fully acknowledges that the real estate market that is benefiting longtime property owners in central Brooklyn and across the city is absolutely threatening some small business tenants.
“At a time like this, retail business owners must know their rights and defend them. Whether they are negotiating an initial lease or a renewal or enforcing a lease’s terms, no mom & pop should ignore a threat or stand alone in facing it,” said Cornegy.
“My job is to ensure that resources, support and law are available to back our businesses up, and to connect vulnerable owners to them. I urge any business in need to reach out to my office. We’re here to help.”
