As many as 76,000 small businesses in New York City – a third of the 230,000 citywide – may never reopen after forced to close during the COVID-19 lockdown, business leaders have warned.
The Partnership for New York City, a not-for-profit organization that connects business leaders with local government, predicted that 76,000 small businesses will never be able to reopen in a report produced by 14 consulting firms.
‘Borough chambers of commerce estimate that as many as a third of local small businesses will permanently close as a result of COVID-19.
‘Most small businesses have less than three months of cash reserves, the entire length of NY PAUSE.
‘That means that funds to restart, pay back rent and buy inventory are exhausted, leaving tens of thousands of entrepreneurs at risk, particularly business owners of color,’ the report reads.
It also pointed to the loss of revenue from the 65million tourists the city relies on every year for money as a source of worry for many hotspots.
A restaurant on May 24 in New York City, one of the thousands that had to close their doors for the 14-week lockdown. As many as 76,000 may never reopen
Among them is St Patrick’s Cathedral which has lost around $4million – a quarter of its annual income – because no one has visited for four months.
The church is among the most famous in the world but it sits on Fifth Avenue in Midtown, surrounded not by residents but businesses and offices that have been deserted since March.
Now, it cannot pay its bills.
‘We have never had anything like this before. All the traditional things we have had in the past, dinners and things like that, we can’t do.
‘The options are to beg, which is what I have been doing since March 15,’ Msgr. Robert T. Ritchie, the rector of the cathedral, told The New York Times.
Mass resumed at the church on June 28 but only at a 25 percent capacity.
Before the pandemic, the church pulled in $1million a month from people visiting. Sunday masses drew crowds of between 10,000 and 15,000.
The church received a PPE payout from the federal government of between $350,000 and $1million but it would not say exactly how much it received, only that the money was used to continue paying staff.
An empty St Patrick’s Cathedral on April 12. The iconic church was forced to close along with every other one in New York City
Mass resumed on June 28 but at a 25 percent capacity. Now, the church says it is struggling to pay bills
A separate trust that maintains the facade of the building received another loan of between $1million and $2million.
According to the report, 5million fewer international tourists will visit the city this year which will amount in a loss of $8billion.
The firms which produced the report said the recovery plan must be led by businesses and not the government, and that it must focus on healthcare and tracing, along with making digital commerce more available to independent businesses.
They are; Accenture, Aon, BCG, Dalberg, Deloitte, Ernst& Young, Kearney, KPMG, McKinsey, Mercer, Oliver Wyman, PWC, West Monroe, Willis Towers Watson.
The report also revealed;
- A predicted $8billion tax revenue decline in 2021 and 2022
- A 32 per cent in ales tax decline in New York City in May – $196million
- More than 900,000 jobs are predicted to be lost by the end of June
- Gross City Product decline from between 6.0% to 12.9% ( $54 billion to $115 billion from 2019 levels) by the end of the year
- A prediction that the MTA will lose $14billion through 2021 and Port Authority and PATH will lose $3billion
New York City has seen more than 18,000 deaths since the pandemic began. It imposed one of the strictest and the longest lockdowns across the country, which had a devastating effect on the economy.
While the infection rate has been almost squashed, the city is a far cry from what it was at the start of the year.
NYC will lose 10 percent in revenue in 2021 but New Jersey is predicted to lose far more
Ridership on public transport plummeted in April and has barely recovered