UPDATE 2/27/2021: ALBB published an article titled “Rent Increases In Beacon - Sometimes 12% - Driving Beaconites Out Or Stress On How To Stay” - but we linked to this page (also related) by accident! Click here to find that article. Thank you!
With the 2021 Budget discussion hot off the City Council books - which has been voted on to be approved - there was much chatter about the items in - or not in - the budget. Chatter is an understatement. There was a large evening protest about the 2021 budget when the budget first came out because of the unavoidable headline of the Police budget being increased despite wide calls for a decrease in police funding. The increase was a matter or pre-negotiated contracts with the Police Union that does not fit into the bars of this rhyme, as well as the long haul that is union negotiations and the power that unions hold - for better or worse.
While the Police budget was the lead character in the protest, many members of the public during Budget Season (October - December) called into City Council Meetings every other week during Public Comment to voice their concern for the lack of focus on affordable housing in the budget. At the same time, some members of the public were calling for the property tax increase to go to cap, of 2%, in order to fund more community services. However, this would result in more of an increase for all in some form, either directly as a homeowner, or indirectly as a renter if the landlord raises the rent. Ultimately, Mayor Lee Kyriacou maintained his direction of not going to cap, and was supported by City Council in the budget.
Personal/Residential Rent Experiences
People did begin writing into A Little Beacon Blog with the concern of affordable housing and rental as well. One reader, who wanted to remain anonymous because, they stated, “everyone knows someone” in a small town, wanted to share their concern of rising rents. They stated:
“I’ll share my experience about affordable living. I’m originally from (somewhere in the 5 boroughs) but my family lives in (somewhere up north) for the last 20 years and I moved to Beacon about 6 years ago.
“The rent was very affordable. A year ago, my house was sold to an investor and immediately he tired to raise my rent $150 a month after living in the space for 4 years. I very kindly said no way - and then asked him down to the original rent and had to school him that everyone in the building had lived here for years and that our landlord only raised the rent $20 years for cost of living.
“Needless to say, 2 tenants moved out because of that and of course people from Manhattan moved in who paid $1,600 instead of the going $1,300/$1,400.
“So because of the stay at home work order, you have NYC salaries coming in, drawing up every price while the Hudson Valley local residents stay within their former means as prices are driven up on real estate and other goods. It’s a huge shifting around.
“I am happy I know how to advocate for myself, and I’m always looking on the bright side. There are some good things to everything.”
This reader is not the only one. In A Little Beacon Blog’s immediate sphere, one of our own was threatened by their landlord with a raised rent, all of a sudden. The landlord wanted to sell the house at an inflated price that they were sure would attract New York City folk. This ALBB person left their rental house, and pursued buying a home in Wappingers Falls. After a questionable process, the move ended in success, and they are now proud homeowners in Wappingers, leaving the landlord of their formal rental house a bit surprised. They aren’t the first one with a story like this.
Business Rent Increases
In the business world, there are about 20 business turnovers in Beacon, which A Little Beacon Blog hasn’t been able to blog about yet, despite this chronic turnover starting during the pandemic.
Businesses are usually quiet about how they negotiate with their landlords. The landlords hold power over them, as their landlords hold the keys to their shops. They can pull the lease, and out the shop goes. In fact, simply knowing the going rate for square footage can be difficult to come by, as business owners keep their cards close to the vest.
In terms of how businesses fared during the first shutdown, many of whom continue to suffer from reduced capacity and overall comfort levels of returning to offices, some Beacon landlords gave no concessions during the pandemic. While some businesses were shut, not bringing in any income, some landlords pondered if the renter would stay, and wanted to see financials and projections of shut-down businesses. This was especially true for fitness studios - as the landlords considered keeping the business in the space or not.
Some landlords are out of town people, who we will never meet, while other landlords are locals, including Mayor Lee Kayriakou, who owns several properties in Beacon; Nick Page’s family Hudson Valley Todd, LLC (Nick is a Dutchess County Legislator); the owner(s) of Brothers Trattoria; the owner of Minute Men Construction down on Tioranda; and other longtime Beacon residents who have made property ownership part of their profession.
Landlords, Relationships & Pricing
Many times, the reason a business stays or goes in a space can be directly tied to the relationship between the tenant (business owner) and landlord. Some building owners are compassionate with their tenants, as mine was when I had my office in the Telephone Building at 291 Main Street when it was under the ownership of Deobrah Bigelow, who fully renovated the building and it sold to a new owner - Shady Twal - who was much different.
In Beacon right now, we are seeing many turnovers. We may never know - publicly - the details of why those businesses are leaving. So I will share while I left my place on Main Street. Why I left 291 Main Street when a new building owner came to town. It may shed light on what goes on behind the scenes of why your favorite business leaves their storefront.
Personally - I don’t believe in regulation controlling this. I do believe in math, and relationships. Math means that numbers need to add up. A new building owner does need to earn something profitable to sustain their livelihood and their bills. But the relationship is just as important. And can lose a tenant.
Why ALBB Left The Telephone Building
When the new owner came in - Shady Twal - he showed much interested in my business. At the time, A Little Beacon Blog and Tin Shingle did 2 revenue generating models in that building:
When the new building owner, Shady Twal, and I first started talking, he loved my business model. He thrived on the pop-up concept, telling me that “his investors” were old-school, and didn’t understand it, but that he did. He told me that because his investors were so old, they weren’t sure if the concept of pop-up shops were legal in this historic building. However, he said, his people in Chicago were looking into it. By the way, he said he was originally from the Hudson Valley, and had moved back to this area - Wappingers Falls specifically - to get back to family roots.
Shady informed me that while pop-ups might not be legal, his people might be OK with it if I gave them a cut of my business from the event space rental business. I knew that the pop-up shops were legal. My former landlord, Deborah Bigelow, was by the book. Big time. So if she allowed it, it was most likely legal. In due diligence, I called the Building Department. The Building Inspector, David Buckley, told me that the pop-up shops were very much very legal.
To present the rent increase, Shady took me to coffee, and told me that there was a very long line for people who wanted my space. I was paying $25/square foot, but that he was told he could get $75/square foot. He could offer me $35/square foot. Plus, he had big ideas for how he could expand my business with more events. Shady made sure to tell me that if for some reason, I couldn’t get approval on future events for some reason, he and his investors could give me approval, if I gave them a cut of the business. He asked if I understood what he was talking about. I told him I understood very well.
When the lease arrived in my inbox, it included a demand for 20% of my event business. This 20% take also included a percentage of my pop-up shop’s income from their sale. This was a no-go for me. In no way was my landlord qualified to take 20% of my business. Let alone any % of the shops who rented from me. My business model was a flat rate, so that my renters could make as much money as they wanted. They paid me a flat rate, and I did as much promotion as possible to help their chances of a great sales weekend.
Of course, this was a non-negotiable item. When I balked at the item in the lease, Shady tried to backtrack, telling me why this was something I should agree to. I disagreed. He agreed to take it off the table. But by then, all trust was broken. There had been other signs that were glaring red flags, and now they were all flashing and blinking as big as possible. I told him I was out. I gave notice that I would move out by January 31, 2020.
This decision was so hard. I said to myself over and over again: “Just deal with it. Everyone has to deal with sucky landlords.” But, my experience with him on normal days - on weekend days when I was co-hosting events - became painful. He talked to me the entire time of changes he wanted to make. Major security systems he wanted to put in. Locked doors (I had an open-door policy, which is customary in retail pop-ups). He wanted to take ownership of the glass door of my office door - where he would hold 50% of what could be written there. My office windows on Main Street - he wanted ownership of those as well, giving me approval of how I could decorate.
It was too much. I was out. I cried. I sobbed. I was leaving a community space that this person had told me he loved, and wanted to support. But there was no way to nurture it within that environment. The lease also included a Privacy Policy clause, where I could not talk about him or the building or the investors. As a publisher, that was of course impossible. For example: the building had just been tagged in a graffiti artist attack, that damaged many buildings in Beacon. And I wasn’t allowed to talk about it.
I moved out very quickly that month. I painted over my chalk-board editorial calendars on the wall. He told me I didn’t need to, but I insisted. When I brought in professional painters to do it, he demanded to see paperwork and insurance from them. Done and delivered. I did not want to leave one ounce of my vision behind.
All cleared out, I arrived on the final day to show him that everything was neat and clean, ready for the security deposit to be returned to me in full. He was so nice that day, saying that everything was 100% great. Until the time came for the security deposit. His attorney, Patrick from Sobo and Sobo, had sent me a multi-page contract that was mainly comprised of a silence-clause, telling me I could not speak of Shady Twal, or the Telephone Building, or any investor or anyone involved at any time.
Of course there was no way I was going to sign that. That day, while I was closing out my clean office, Shady casually told me I could talk to his attorney about the security deposit. I told him that I had already, and that I wasn’t signing a privacy clause, and to send me a check to my new PO Box. Shady got angry, and told me that I knew everything about him, why wouldn’t I sign this. He then said that there wasn’t any money in his building account, based on how he bought the building.
Fortunately, a woman who he introduced as his business partner, Crystal, who it turns out is a realtor, and who now has an office in the Telephone Building, ominously stated: “There is money in an accountant at Sobo and Sobo,” which was the attorney of the building and of Shady.
Later that afternoon, I emailed the attorney, Patrick, letting him know I had the good fortune of meeting Crystal, after Shady told me there was no money in the account, but that Crystal kindly told me that there was, and to please send the check to my brand new PO Box in the Beacon Post Office.
I tell you this story because one never knows what happens between the lines of a business transaction, or of a business moving out.
What follows this article is a series of articles of the businesses that have left and opened. We wish all of these businesses the best: those who have opened here - in brand new locations - or who moved down the road to occupy a newly empty space - and to those who closed up shop and are trying to do it differently, or maybe here again.
