Businesses wanted the flexibility to reopen, but are willing to wait

Businesses in South Florida had hoped for better news Wednesday. They had hoped they’d get the flexibility to resume some operations.

Instead, Gov. Ron DeSantis said people in South Florida will have to wait, and even desperate businesses said they’ll try to hang on if it means protecting public health.

“We’ll eagerly await for whenever he is ready to reopen Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach,” said Bill Herrle, state executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business in Tallahassee. “As long as public health dictates, we’ll take the parts of the state that the governor is ready to open.”

Starting May 4, some retail stores and restaurants operating at 25% capacity will be open in other parts of the state. Reopening is delayed in South Florida because more cases are concentrated here.

“Businesses have been waiting a long time for this,” Herrle said. “Their biggest operational question will be, ‘Will their customers return and will their work forces return?’ Every Floridian is going to make a personal decision.”

Claudio Mekler, CEO of Miami Manager, an investment real estate firm that operates shopping centers in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, said time is running out for many of his retail tenants.

“Many of them won’t survive the closure for much longer,” he said.

The federation had sent 10 recommendations to the governor that suggested he loosen some of the restrictions now in

place and give companies some more breathing room.

They included dispensing with distinctions between essential and nonessential businesses and large and small companies.

The small-business advocacy group also wanted to ensure that any restrictions are temporary, that businesses would receive liability protection from pandemic-related lawsuits and workers’ compensation claims, and that continuing education deadlines for the renewal of all professional licenses would be extended.

For now, bars and restaurants in South Florida will remain takeout or delivery only, with no timetable for reopening.

DeSantis said restaurants elsewhere can open at 25% capacity inside and allow table seating outside with at least 6 feet of social distancing. Gatherings will remain limited to 10 people, under guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he said.

“I suspected South Florida would get excluded. We have the highest rate of COVID cases,” said Tim Petrillo, whose hospitality group the Restaurant People operates 11 Fort Lauderdale restaurants, including Java and Jam, Boatyard and Township. Before the pandemic, his restaurants employed 675 workers.

Even if South Florida restaurants could reopen now, “opening at 25%, candidly, doesn’t make any restaurant much money,” Petrillo said.

Emi Guerra, co-owner of the Wharf Fort Lauderdale, said DeSantis made the right call. Guerra thinks customers would feel skittish about returning to the confined spaces of restaurants, even if they reopened.

“I’d love to flip a switch and say, ‘Hey, we’re back on full-steam,’ but the truth is you have people afraid to catch something,” Guerra said. “I’m hopeful because there’s at least clarity now. The state reopening has begun.”

Herrle said small businesses are a critical part of the economy. “Small businesses employ 3.4 million in Florida, or about 42% of the state’s workforce,” he said.

Elin Trousdale, who operates the cozy French restaurant Le Bistro in Lighthouse Point with her husband, chef Andy Trousdale, said her eatery can weather the shutdown awhile longer.

“We’ve had some success with takeout, but my biggest concern is everyone’s safety,” Trousdale said. “It’s just my husband and I now, so if we got sick, that’s it.”

Bob Swindell, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, the private-public business development group for Broward County, said businesses and their customers are already honoring government-imposed restrictions to help contain the virus.

“I think people have adopted this,” he said. “We have to give the businesspeople the latitude to be smart about it. They’ve got more to lose if the number of cases spikes. It’s going to be part of our environment so we’re going to have to live with it up to the point a vaccine is developed.”