92% of NYC restaurants couldn't pay December rent

Thousands of eating and drinking businesses have permanently closed and more than 140,000 industry jobs were lost last year in New York City, according to the NYC Hospitality Alliance, and this recent data suggest that these numbers may continue to climb. While 40% of these businesses said their landlords reduced rent and 36% said their landlords allowed tenants to defer rent, only 14% were able to renegotiate leases with their landlords and 24% are in "good faith" negotiations. 

"While the reopening of highly regulated indoor dining is welcome news, we need to safely increase occupancy to 50% as soon as possible, and we urgently need robust and comprehensive financial relief from the federal government," Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, said in the press release.

The city's Open Streets program, which closed streets to provide restaurants with more room for outdoor dining, helped save almost 100,000 jobs with participation from 10,000 restaurants, Mayor Bill de Blasio said earlier this year. The program became permanent and year-round last fall, but the survey shows that outdoor dining and off-premise channels haven't been enough to recoup lost sales, especially during winter.