Commercial property owner Bill Harrison has served as a landlord in downtown Royal Oak, Michigan, for a long time now. But as businesses struggle to stay afloat amid the worldwide closures due to the virus, Harrison will essentially be a landlord in name only; for the time being, he’s only accepting $1 in rent money from each of his three downtown tenants.
“I sent a message to my tenants saying for April rent just send me a check for $1,” Harrison said, explaining that he notified the renters in March regarding their payments due April 1st. “When I cash that check that’s assurance to you that I have accepted a dollar as payment. We are going to take it a month at a time.”
Businesses have been hit perhaps the hardest during the ongoing pandemic, which has forced storefront operations to close, some forever, while social distancing measures are implemented in an effort to slow the spread of the virus. This has left everyone from families to business owners facing the prospect of not being able to pay their bills due to steep declines in cash flow—hence Harrison’s decision to make things a little bit easier on his tenants for the time being.
Besides garnering some good press, the move also helps Harrison maintain his tenants, who were inadvertently impacted by the sudden crisis, thus keeping the property occupied. He declined to elaborate further in interviews with local news about just how much of a hit his own finances will take by failing to bring in rent revenue.
He’s still charging utilities, but the simple decision to cancel rent is expected to truly make a difference.
“I think it will give [business owners] some hope and help them hang on through this crisis,” explained Sean Kammer, who works with the Downtown Development Authority.
There’s no set end date for Harrison’s kindness, but he did imply that rent will remain a flexible topic of discussion even once businesses start to reopen—which should be even more of a relief for his tenants.
“When they do get open, business is going to be slow and we will have to be compassionate then as well,” Harrison explained. And although he didn’t elaborate on whether that meant a graduated return to full rent prices or extra grace periods and payment plans, it’s safe to say that this landlord has his heart in the right place. Hopefully, his compassion will help keep a few more families on their feet through the pandemic, which should make it that much easier to return to normal whenever the time may come.
