“I feel like I’m in the driver’s seat when negotiating with landlords,” said Ms. Resler, a co-founder of Sharks Pool Club, an online service and app where customers can book private rooms with pool tables. “And how long can a market that favors the tenant last?”
Many successful deals involve smaller storefronts and shorter time frames. Now it is not unusual for leases to offer spaces anywhere from six months to five years, considerably shorter than the 10 or 15 years offered before the pandemic.
In Ms. Resler’s case, some landlords accepted smaller deposits, sums for just one or two months as opposed to the norm of four to six months, while another lease included a “Covid pause” clause, which would not penalize her if she couldn’t pay rent in the case of another surge and shutdown.
Ms. Resler and her partners have been touring up to 15 spaces a week all over Manhattan. Her goal is to open about two or three spaces a month, and possibly to turn some of them into screening or card rooms for New Yorkers who are sick of their small apartments but want to socialize in a group. She is considering only move-in-ready spaces. “If a landlord won’t agree to fix things up before a lease signing, I move on.”
As she said, she’s in the driver’s seat. For now.
So is Chirag Kulkarni, a co-founder and chief marketing officer of the Brooklyn-based Medly Pharmacy, which offers same-day prescription deliveries. He said that securing an affordable space in East Harlem felt like he was getting a “buy one, get one free” deal.
The pandemic almost doubled Medly’s revenue, as people stayed indoors and the need for deliveries soared. Months after Mr. Kulkarni opened his headquarters in Bushwick, Medly’s vice president of retail development found the space in East Harlem, which made expanding into Manhattan and points north a no-brainer, he said.
Larger retail spaces are sitting longer, according to Mr. Puopolo. Some fashion brands saw their ground-floor stores get looted and vandalized last summer and have inquired about second- or third-floor availabilities, Mr. Puopulo continued, surmising that some businesses are trying exclusivity as a new marketing tool.
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