Hotel swap a business ‘expense’
Sales ‘cliff’ as migrants replace tourists
Big Apple businesses say they’re losing their shirts over the ongoing migrant crisis.
Owners and staff at Manhattan shops and restaurants told The Post that sales have plummeted since City Hall began forking over millions to house migrants in hotels.
“We 100% will have to cut shifts, and some people will lose their jobs over the next four weeks,” said Ana Ivkosic, owner of Cafe Wattle, which is located down the block from a 492-room Holiday Inn in the Financial District that began housing migrants this month.
With well-heeled tourists replaced by penniless refugees from Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador, revenue has plunged. Total sales for items like $2.50 cups of coffee and $10 acai bowls is down 75% some days. The cafe used to clear $2,000 on a good day in January, but now might ring up only $500.
“It has not been a decline, it’s been a cliff,” Ivkosic said, adding the café began closing early this past weekend and one staffer is already being let go.
Restaurant owners cried that once-bustling Rector Street has descended into a ghost town. “If you stop by, I’m dead most of the day,” said Fotis Liberatos, who runs Siena Pizza and Siena Bakehouse.
Businesses near the ritzy Row NYC hotel in Times Square similarly have found themselves hurting as of late last year, when the city began putting up hundreds of migrant families in the $400-a-night rooms.
Gustvao Rosario, manager of the Iron Bar & Grill located across the street, estimated that Row NYC guests made up 25% of his customers. Their sudden disappearance has forced him to lay off 12 of his 60 staffers, and cut the hours of the rest.
“We’re working with minimum staff right now, because there’s not much business,” he said. “Everybody in the area is paying the price — the gift shop, the smoke shop.”
Asif Sarker, who manages the I NY Gifts next door to the Row, said sales for his store’s mementos have plunged 75%. Pedestrians are avoiding his side of the block because hotel residents congregate in the middle of the sidewalk, wolfing down pizza while blasting music, he said.
“The people, they go on the other side of the street,” Sarker said. “They’re not coming by, so it has affected us also.”
Several migrants staying at the Row sympathized with business owners’ complaints that guests congregating outside had been scaring off customers, but noted it had been less of an issue this year.
“What happens is some people are out of control,” said one 52year-old migrant from Peru, who is staying at the Row with his 2-year-old son. “That’s why they’ve kicked the majority of people out. The rest of us are more calm, mostly with families.”
No money to spare
Others hope one day to be able to frequent the struggling businesses.
“If we get approved, get jobs, maybe we can help with that problem,” said Row resident Luis Moreno, 41, who arrived from Ecuador three months ago with his wife, 4-year-old daughter and just $150.
“But since we can’t, right now, we’re using all the money we have to feed our daughter,” he added with tears in his eyes.
The city has opened 85 emergency shelters and five larger Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers, housing at least 29,100 of the more than 45,600 migrants who have arrived since the spring, according to the Department of Social Services.
Mayor Adams’ administration recently inked a $275 million deal with the Hotel Association of New York City to house at least 5,000 migrants.
A City Hall spokesperson said that the Adams administration has been “a strong and vocal supporter of expediting work permits for asylum seekers arriving in the US so people can obtain employment and begin stabilizing their lives.”