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Glen reluctant on commercial rent control measures
Deputy mayor "not sure" move would help preserve small businesses
Alicia Glen is having none of this commercial rent control business.
The city’s deputy mayor for housing and economic development was asked point-blank on Thursday whether New York City should adopt the measure.
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Though a tally of audience members at the event indicated that 63 percent supported commercial rent control, Glen – who worked in real estate finance at Goldman Sachs before joining the de Blasio administration – was more reluctant.
“It’s a very complicated issue, like most issues,” she said at the Municipal Art Society’s sixth annual MAS Summit. “And I’m not sure that necessarily adopting commercial rent control would lead to solve the problem that people think the problem is.”
Though Glen said in April that she was committed to preserving the “cool, funky New York” characterized by small, family-owned businesses, on Thursday, Politico reported, she argued that “there are some small businesses that are probably going to just fail because they’re not very good businesses,” and therefore don’t need to be protected by measures like commercial rent control.
Glen added that the city has taken measures to create more transparency in the retail market for small businesses and has prioritized local businesses in developments the city helps underwrite. [Politico] – Rey Mashayekhi