Office employees in Manhattan are resuming in-person work at a mere trickle, squeezing local businesses and clouding their prospects of survival amid struggles to recover from the COVID-19 fallout.
By comparison, a nationwide review of real-estate firm data by The Wall Street Journal found that, on average, around 25 percent of office workers have returned to their desks.
The consequences of Manhattan’s stunted commercial occupancy rates could be dire for local businesses that depend on foot traffic from nearby offices, such as restaurants.
Edison Castillo, manager of Café Metro, a quick-service restaurant near the MetLife building in Manhattan, which relies on office workers for business, told The Wall Street Journal that times are tough.
“Ninety percent of our revenue depends on office workers and another 10 [percent] depends on tourists,” Castillo said. “We have lost both ways. I used to have 55 employees between both morning and night shifts. Right now, we are down to six.”
New York City restaurants were set to resume indoor dining at 25 percent capacity on Sept. 30, helping lift their prospects for survival. Many restaurateurs, however, say this may be too little too late. Hundreds of protesters marched in New York’s Midtown Manhattan on Sept. 28 toward Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, calling for indoor dining to be raised to at least 50 percent capacity.
“The past six months, it’s been a lot of work, we’ve been just treading water here, trying to keep our heads afloat, trying to survive more than anything,” said Chris Page, operating partner of White Oak Tavern. “Two-thirds of restaurants are going to be going under, if they haven’t already. And we might be one of them if they don’t pass this 50 [percent]. We’re not going to make it to November. We probably have, maybe, four weeks left in us.”
Mark Fox, president of Fox Lifestyle Hospitality Group, said the pandemic forced him to slash staff from 130 down to 50. He called for the passage of the RESTAURANTS Act, a proposal that would provide a $120 billion relief fund for restaurant owners and New York City’s 167,000 restaurant workers.
“These people are in dire financial straits,” Fox said. “I see the anxiety and pain on their faces every day. They want to work. Ask any employee that shows up here today what they want to do. They want to go to work and they want to take care of their families.”
Low office occupancy rates in New York City have also affected the city’s tax base, with the city government projecting a $9 billion drop in sales tax and other revenue for its fiscal year that began on July 1.
“In New York City, employment plunged by about 20 percent from February to April and grew by a smaller 3.4 percent from April to June,” he wrote. “The FY 2021 Adopted Budget reflects the ravaging of the City’s economy and tax revenues by the pandemic.”
