Mayor Adams signs two bills on October 18, 2022. Image Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
The two City Council measures will create a small business portal and require additional commercial property registration, respectively. On October 18, 2022, Mayor Eric Adams signed two bills, Intro 116 and Intro 383, to promote the city’s economic recovery. Intro 116 will help small business owners with City administrative needs and Intro 383 provides the city with more data about the extent of commercial vacancies citywide.
Intro 116, sponsored by Council Member Julie Menin, will require the Small Business Services Commissioner to create a “One-Stop Shop NYC Business Portal.” Business owners will be able to access all of the necessary applications, permits, licenses, and other documentation needed to open and sustain their small businesses open. For CityLand’s previous coverage on the small business portal, click here.
The Mayor previously pledged to create a one-stop shop business portal in his economic recovery blueprint, released in March. Earlier this year, Small Business Services, the Office of Technology and Innovation, and the Mayor’s Office of Efficiency began spearheading an interagency taskforce, and their work on the portal is currently underway. Once the business portal is made available to the public, users will be able to easily submit and check on the status of their documents, as well as settle or pay any outstanding balances on notices of violation.
Under the bill, the Small Business Commissioner will also be required to evaluate the portal’s efficiency and effectiveness every three years. This review process must include a survey of participating small businesses.
Council Member Menin, who chairs the Small Business Committee, stated, “Centralizing the process of obtaining vital permits and licenses to operate your business will make a world of difference. Small business owners and entrepreneurs don’t have the time to figure out the logistics of being in compliance, and creating a one-stop shop business portal provides the necessary support that our small businesses need to survive and thrive.”
Deputy Mayor for Economic and Workforce Development Maria Torres-Springer added, “Small businesses are the backbone of our local economy, and so many of them continue to struggle as our city recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the new ‘One-Stop Shop NYC Business Portal,’ we will clear away bureaucratic obstacles for small business owners, allowing them to focus their time and energy on growing their core business.”
The second piece of legislation, Intro 383, mandates that vacant commercial properties be registered twice a year with the Department of Finance. Prior to the passage of Intro 383, the law required a single filing on June 30 of each year. Under the updated law, registration statements for the period from January 1 through June 30 must be filed by August 15, and statements for the period from July 1 through December 31 must be filed by February 15.
These supplemental registration statements will be required for any property that’s vacant at the end of a given reporting period. The bill also requires that the Department of Finance release their vacancy data within 60 days, compared to within six months under previous law. By increasing the timeliness and frequency of reported data, vacant commercial properties can more quickly be utilized by new tenants.
Council Member Gale Brewer, the bill’s prime sponsor, shared, “Introduction 383 will require reporting on vital information to assess the proliferation of commercial vacancies — including whether ground-floor commercial properties are currently vacant, owner- or commercial tenant-occupied, and the expiration date of the last lease. This will provide more data to observe patterns and trends to make better decisions.”
Finance Commissioner Preston Niblack also voiced his support, stating, “Creating a more timely and standardized reporting method for tracking vacant commercial properties is key to supporting our small business community and strengthening our local economy. By simplifying the process to report this valuable information, we can better serve the public and improve communities overwhelmed by empty storefronts. It’s a win-win for all New Yorkers.”
Mayor Adams stated, “With the signing of these two bills, we will ensure we are serving our small business community better through a one-stop shop portal to help them open and operate their businesses and by keeping better data on commercial vacancies in our city. Promises made, promises kept.”
By: Cassidy Strong (Cassidy is a CityLaw intern and a New York Law School student, Class of 2024.)
Mayor Adams Signs Two Bills To Promote Broad-Based Economic Recovery In NYC, October 18, 2022.
Intro 383 is just another unnecessary intrusion and waste of Landlord’s time. For what? “City having better info”. Just walk the streets at 2pm if you want to know what stores are available in an area. City can’t do anything useful with the info. They have not done anything yet. It’s just another way to penalize Landlords and steal their money in the form of silly violations/penalties. I would like to point out that Landlords are also small businesses!
City has already required this info on the new, extra long and onerous RPIE form (in place for over 3 years). Now they want Landlords to fill it out a second time each year? IT IS THE LANDLORD’S ALREADY SUFFERING THE MOST FROM THE VACANCIES, NOW THE CITY IS GOING TO MAKE IT WORSE BY WASTING OUR TIME AND LEVYING PENALTIES FOR THEM?!?
This all stems from the idiotic idea that liberals keep floating that Landlord’s somehow make more money by intentionally keeping space vacant (a 100% loss of rent and substantial increase of risk of vandalism and squatters) to keep up rental rates (I can’t image being able to affect rates in a City as big as NY at all, lets give them the benefit of the doubt and call it 10%). How does a 10% increase EVER OFFSET A 100% LOSS!?
If leasing has become more difficult its because: 1) the CITY won’t let Landlords throw out bad tenants in a timely manner. Why take a risk on a low credit tenant if you can be sure you won’t collect rent for a year if things go bad. And all during that time they are trashing the space and accruing penalties and violations in Landlord’s! 2. Cost and expense of building out a space for a new business is exorbitant. Again, not worth the risk on a marginal tenant. Between bad contractors and NYC DOB delays and violations during build-out many of these new tenants end up nearly bankrupt before they can even open the doors to the new business. I’ve had 4 of the last 5 commercial tenants that did meaningful work in the space prior to opening be in substantial debt, and in 2 cases quickly default and leave, by the time they actually opened for business in the new spaces. It was only because of the good graces of the Landlord who let them pay those arrears down over time that the others were able to make it work, and the final results are still not in.
Harassing Landlords and further screwing them in favor of tenants will only make it harder on the small business owner trying to get started! IT IS THE ONLINE ECONOMY THAT MAKES IT HARD FOR NEW BUSINESSES, not Landlord.