Q&A
Commercial Lease Assistance (CLA) program details and services
1:43:47
ยท
7 min
Council Member Feliz inquires about the Commercial Lease Assistance program, its services, outreach efforts, and impact. Commissioner Gross provides detailed information about the program's operations and effectiveness.
- Most clients seek lease reviews, either for existing leases or before signing new ones
- The program also handles issues like tenant harassment, lease exits, renewals, and amendments
- SBS is responsible for outreach through various channels, including marketing teams and business solution centers
- Over 90% of survey respondents report satisfaction with the program
- The program is delivered citywide, with higher usage in Manhattan and Brooklyn, correlating with small business distribution and challenges in these areas
Oswald Feliz
1:43:47
Okay.
1:43:47
A few questions about the commercial lease assistance program.
1:43:50
Really important program, you know, making sure you know, especially given that when it comes to commercial tenants, most of their rights are in the lease.
1:43:58
And that's it.
1:43:59
You know, who's entitled to renewal, the rent increases.
1:44:01
If landlord can increase, generally yes.
1:44:04
Also, who makes repairs and etcetera.
1:44:06
So, a very important program.
1:44:08
According to the FY 24 report, most of the businesses were very small businesses, 0 to 2 employees.
1:44:15
So what do most of these businesses seek help with?
1:44:20
And also, what does that type of help say about the businesses?
1:44:23
Are they looking for help starting the of the businesses?
1:44:26
Maintaining the business?
1:44:28
And also how do they generally hear about the program.
Dynishal Gross
1:44:32
Thank you, council member.
1:44:34
So in the commercial lease assistance programs, most most clients want a lease review.
1:44:40
But that can be an existing lease or it may be a lease that's been presented to them for execution where they want support, understanding, or negotiating the terms of the lease before they make a decision about whether or not to sign.
1:44:54
We do have some clients that present with concerns about, tenant harassment or some type of breach of contract by the landlord.
1:45:03
That's about 8% of the cases in the program.
1:45:07
We have some clients who wanna get out of lease, and perhaps the terms in the lease for how to end the lease, you know, are not, in line with their current resources, and they want support, exiting a lease or negotiating an exit from a lease.
1:45:22
Other types of matters would be lease renewals, lease amendments, or subletting a lease or understanding, if they should take a lease as a sub lessee.
1:45:35
And then we do have some small number of cases that are you know, I have an unwritten oral agreement with my landlord, and, you know, the terms are shifting or there's some challenge with an oral lease agreement.
1:45:47
So those are the types of matters that we're tracking in CLA.
Oswald Feliz
1:45:52
And who's, responsible for outreach, and how do businesses generally learn about this program?
Dynishal Gross
1:45:57
We are responsible for outreach.
1:45:59
My agency, my central outreach team, our marketing team, and we do it in partnership with our business solution centers.
1:46:07
And like I said, offering the workshops and clinics about commercial leasing issues is also a way to increase awareness.
1:46:14
But anytime our field based teams are in the are in the work, we're cross selling.
1:46:18
We're cross selling all of our programs.
1:46:20
NYC Best is on a commercial corridor to visit a particular business, to do a compliance advisement.
1:46:26
They're also gonna visit other businesses on the corridor and leave our collateral and business cards.
1:46:30
If we see a place where, business, you know, the there's suddenly paper on the windows because the new business is coming, if you see that, call me.
1:46:39
We really want to connect with those businesses during that phase to accelerate the process until they get to opening day and provide these services.
1:46:47
So, again, we get a lot of referrals from 311 as well, but also from our outreach and marketing and our vendor zone efforts.
Oswald Feliz
1:46:57
Okay.
1:46:57
And what has been the feedback from the small business community and also the legal service providers on this issue?
1:47:02
And, also, what's data that we analyze related to the services we provide?
Dynishal Gross
1:47:09
We provide or we, send all consumers of our business services a brief survey.
1:47:18
Once they've, completed the service, we call it the customer sentiment survey survey or the business sentiment survey, and we track results for the program.
1:47:27
So for the CLA program, over 90% of survey respondents report satisfaction with the program.
1:47:34
We also ask if they would recommend the program to other business owners, and they do that.
1:47:41
We get referrals, from satisfied clients in the in the program as well.
Oswald Feliz
1:47:46
Okay.
1:47:47
And one final question on that, program.
1:47:50
So we have 2 providers that provide, sort of legal services under that program, right, more or less?
1:47:57
1 is
Dynishal Gross
1:47:57
called 1.
Oswald Feliz
1:47:58
Two boroughs.
1:47:59
Sorry.
1:48:00
Provide We
Dynishal Gross
1:48:00
have 1 vendor who provides, the commercial lease assistance program citywide, and they have one subcontractor, that that supports them in that citywide service delivery.
Oswald Feliz
1:48:12
Okay.
1:48:14
And, generally, communities in Brooklyn and Manhattan have been the most the communities that have reached out the most for those types of services?
Dynishal Gross
1:48:22
I think, Manhattan and Brooklyn?
1:48:24
Yes.
1:48:25
Yes.
Oswald Feliz
1:48:26
Any reason why it's these 2 boroughs and not other boroughs?
1:48:31
And also, where are these providers slash subcontractors located?
1:48:35
Brooklyn and Manhattan.
1:48:36
Right?
Dynishal Gross
1:48:38
Where are their offices located?
1:48:40
I mean, I honestly don't know.
UNKNOWN
1:48:42
I think Brooklyn
Dynishal Gross
1:48:42
But they provide this service at scale citywide, and we have never had a challenge getting coverage, you know, in the Rockaways in the Bronx, by by this vendor.
1:48:53
So I do believe they're able to effectively provide, a citywide service.
1:48:58
The distribution of service delivery generally matches the distribution of small businesses in the city.
1:48:58
Okay.
1:49:07
Manhattan.
1:49:08
And, also, we see, high levels of vacancy and small business
UNKNOWN
1:49:12
turnover and challenges in Manhattan.
1:49:12
So I think
Dynishal Gross
1:49:12
it makes sense that some of those are, Manhattan.
1:49:14
So I think it makes sense that some of those are, you know, requesting the support of the program and and utilizing the service.
1:49:22
In Brooklyn, we also see, you know, high new small business creation, but we do attempt to reach clients citywide.
1:49:31
I mean, this is in we we really plan the outreach of our, the rollout of new services to, reach LMI communities, to establish new partners and work with them.
1:49:43
So this is an area of our work we want to further improve.
1:49:47
I don't believe, though, that there is unmet demand for the service among Bronx businesses.
1:49:54
And if that is the case, we will work to close that gap.
Oswald Feliz
1:49:59
Okay.
1:49:59
Yeah.
1:49:59
And when we're talking about programs like this one, I'm always thinking about communities in the Bronx, communities that are obviously very disadvantaged, not only the people that live there, but also people that, do business there, a lot of challenges.
1:50:10
So, you know, programs like this one is really important, making sure that everybody has access.
1:50:15
But access is one thing.
1:50:17
And, you know, easy access, having these tools at your fingertips, that's another case.
1:50:23
So I'll be interested in just thinking about ways, we can potentially have a provider in the Bronx just to make sure that people don't have just general access, but, you know, making sure that our small businesses in disadvantaged communities have access in their fingertips, which is, you know, obviously, something that would be very beneficial to needy communities.
1:50:44
So, yeah, I look forward to chatting about that, offline.
Dynishal Gross
1:50:47
Thank you, cheerfully.
1:50:48
So we we do operate our network of business solution centers citywide, including, BSC in the Bronx, and we think that's really important to provide a physical location.
1:50:59
Of course, we deliver a lot of services online, but we do have, you know, a brick and mortar location, a walk in service for any business owner, and we do operate them in every borough.
1:51:11
So that is also an entryway for business owners to connect with all of our central services, then the business education and legal consultation resources through those centers as well.