Payment Gap: Retailers are reopening, but many aren’t paying rent
June payments have been paltry, according to landlords and brokers; the recent unrest marked another setback
June 05, 2020
In just the last week, stores throughout Los Angeles went from closed to reopened to boarded up. “There was retail momentum a week ago,” said Jay Luchs, vice chairman at Newmark Knight Frank. “Then all of a sudden the riots happened.” Protests over the police killing of George Floyd and bursts of looting and vandalism that followed damaged retailers like Nordstrom Rack at the Grove and the Record Collector on Melrose Avenue. They also mark the latest setback for brick-and-mortar stores, which were battered by the statewide coronavirus lockdowns, on top of consumers’ steady shift to online shopping.
