Why is our jewelry district so heavily dependent on mainly two buildings? For years we’ve been in a “cornered” position as tenants of landlords who have always put their profits ahead of the good of their tenants. Tenants are constantly complaining that their landlords haven’t done enough to maintain their respective buildings. Rent has constantly increased at approximately 5% year over year, but when a recession arrives they “can’t afford to give any discounts.”

Every time a lease renewal comes around, we nervously meet with building management in hopes that they don’t increase rent more than the usual 3-5%. We are constantly in fear of our landlords rather than work with them. In the span of 10 years, many of us have seen our lease payments double, yet how many of us have seen our income double in the past 10 years?

New tenants are constantly getting great lease incentives but loyal tenants who have spent decades in the same office space haven’t been given any breaks when they needed it most. These are unprecedented times. Yes, most of us have experienced recession at one point or another but this recession is truly unchartered territory. While we go through a global pandemic, effectively a global recession, our landlords responses have been “it’s not our fault.” Our income has been slashed, our ability to collect from clients have been extremely difficult, and all we asked from our Landlords was a little understanding, perhaps some compassion that maybe we can all share this burden together so that we all come out of this stronger. But “COVID-19 is not their fault,” perhaps it's our fault. They’re absolutely right, it is OUR fault that we have relied so heavily on one or two buildings that we believed are the best locations for our business.

We have given so much power to a 1 block radius that we eliminated our biggest asset in business, our ability to compete and force others to compete for our business. Why should our landlords give us any discounts when we have given them this power. They watched us sign, renewal after renewal, until we couldn’t afford it anymore and had no choice but to move. If 9 out of 10 tenants continue to keep paying increases in their leases every renewal, they don’t care about losing 1 tenant, regardless of how long they’ve been great tenants. To add salt to that wound, they almost always will give the new incoming tenant a heavy discount from the rate the outgoing tenant was paying. And so the cycle continues.

This is all our fault, we allowed this to keep happening rather than MOVE OUT.
We have the option to find another office and get a better deal from a Landlord who hopefully appreciates our business and will work with us in the future so that we both succeed. The time has come to take action and show our Landlords why they should care about their tenants, why they should incentivise loyalty, and why they should feel the same pain we have felt, by MOVING OUT and letting them enjoy their vacancies.

-Frustrated Tenant