Council Member Brewer questions Khan on vacancy database and handshake leases

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

These are hard issues.

I guess my first question would be, you're doing a great deal of work, but from my experience walking around Manhattan anyway, and now recently in the Queens,

wonderful tour that we had.

This is like a tidal wave to be able to be supportive of the mom and pops because the chains are like biting at the bit to get in there.

I mean, that was a perfect example.

Unfortunately, I've seen that before in what we saw in Jackson Heights.

So my question is, I guess, does XYZ, that database, doesn't include some of the questions that the chair was asking, right?

That database, I call it the blaze database.

Does he put it together?

No.

So what does XYZ state?

I know I should know.

And how would that be helpful, if at all, to some of our questions?

It's helpful in understanding larger occupancy and vacancy trends, not

in the level of specificity and detail that you're seeking to pursue where you'd have a greater granular understanding of lease renewal rates and the leases and the status of the leases and which ones are terminated and which ones are not.

Those are...

A contractual relationship between the landlord and the tenant, and there currently is no disclosure requirement.

Well, also the tenants, the commercial tenants, understandably never want to tell you what they're paying.

I've tried that.

We've had trouble getting a lot of information that we'd love to use for advocacy purposes, but businesses oftentimes are hesitant.

Understandably.

They won't tell you that.

They won't tell you if they've got two sets of books.

They do not tell you.

I'm very familiar with that.

But my question also is, so many businesses...

Legacy or not, have no lease.

It's a handshake, particularly when you're in an immigrant community.

Everybody thinks, oh, we've got a long-term relationship here.

Well, not when, you know, somebody else comes calling.

So I guess my question is, are you seeing some trends to get away from the handshake and no lease, or do you think that's still a big issue in our city?

It's hard to tell because of the lack of specificity and clarity in the data, but it's definitely true that there are leases that exist without anything but a verbal agreement.

It's also something to consider that in some cases the request for a written lease may trigger a renegotiation of terms that may not land more favorably.

For some people, they may be making a calculation that what they're getting and what they got 10 years ago and what now they're getting on a month-to-month basis is better than anything in the market if they attempted to do a written lease.

So it's a complicated issue with many factors, but that I'm sure is one of the things that businesses consider before they pursue.

But whenever we're doing the outreach, we're letting them know.

If you are about to sign a new lease or if you're going to be renegotiating a lease and you already had a lease, it's important for the business owner to know what they're signing on to again.

And oftentimes businesses may not find particular provisions of that lease relevant to them until, God forbid, an unfortunate incident takes place.

And then it may be very important for them to understand those liabilities, but maybe a little late.

So that's why we, whenever we're doing our storefront outreach, we...

We can't predict which storefront is on which type of a lease.

Are they on a written lease or verbal?

But they should know that there's up to 40 hours of pro bono legal assistance available to them throughout the city with no wait time, no backlog.

They should reach out to us and get access to that.