Joint Statement on the Proposed "Small Business Rent Stabilization Act"
The Five Chamber Alliance—representing the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island Chambers of Commerce—stands united in expressing our deep concern regarding the "Small Business Rent Stabilization Act" recently reintroduced in the state Legislature.
While we deeply share the goal of ensuring New York City’s small businesses can thrive, commercial rent control is not a viable or realistic option to help our mom-and-pop shops. In fact, commercial rent control is a red herring, offering a false solution to affordability for small businesses.
Our small businesses are facing real, complex challenges that make running an establishment incredibly difficult today. The true burdens stem from skyrocketing operational costs, including aggressive new wage mandates, insurance premiums, utility rates, and an increase in fines and violations, alongside ongoing public safety and sanitation issues.
Furthermore, the reality is that most commercial landlords are small businesses themselves. They are facing all of these exact same cost pressures, in addition to the heavy burden of rising property taxes. If this legislation were to pass, the new mandates—including the creation of a commercial Rent Guidelines Board and government-mandated 10-year lease renewals—would force these property owners to jump through an impossible maze of bureaucratic hoops just to rent out a storefront.
Faced with blanket price controls and the inability to manage their own properties, landlords will be significantly less likely to take a chance on leasing to independent small businesses, new entrepreneurs, or local startups. Instead of creating affordable opportunities, commercial rent stabilization will incentivize property owners to hold out for well-capitalized national chains with pristine credit, or simply leave their storefronts vacant rather than being locked into rigid, decade-long leases dictated by the government. The ultimate victims of this policy will be the local entrepreneurs who will find themselves shut out of the market entirely.
Placing blanket price controls on the commercial real estate market does nothing to solve the root problems our communities are facing. We have seen the disastrous effects of heavy-handed market interference before, and we care too much about our commercial corridors to repeat those mistakes.
We urge the Legislature and the Mayor to reject this misguided proposal before it gains any traction. We stand ready and eager to work with all elected officials on serious, effective, and community-focused solutions to reduce storefront vacancies, but commercial rent control is a dead end for New York City's economic recovery.