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Value of Retail Real Estate to be Hardest Hit Amid COVID-19: Report

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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A recent survey by Altus Group found that not all real estate asset classes are going to be impacted the same way as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic but retail will be the hardest hit.

Colin Johnston, President of Research, Valuation & Advisory at Altus Group, said retail will undergo some structural changes with many bankruptcies taking place and there will be questions about malls going forward and how they will be impacted by social distancing as well as the impact to experiential retail.

Altus Group surveyed 115 Canadian commercial real estate executives from pension funds and life companies, publicly-traded corporations (REITs), private companies, and brokerages to gain insights on the short and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on the retail sector. Topics discussed include challenges associated with physical distancing measures, rental relief programs, vacancy, and overall sector risks.

Johnston said respondents feel there will be an increase in capitalization rates for retail properties and respondents also felt there would be challenges with maintaining rental rates.

“When you talk about capitalization and rental rates, those are things that drive values. Vacancy drives value as well,” said Johnston.

“If you look at StatsCan’s retail sales, what’s held up really well is grocery, pharmacy, and general merchandise . . . A lot of them are deemed essential businesses but they’re also located in what I would call open strip plazas. People were able to get to them. It’s the enclosed shopping centres which have really predominantly fashion tenancies and restaurants and food courts and things like that, those have been impacted a lot.”

Key findings from the survey include:

  • Most owners and managers surveyed (80 percent) already had one or more rental relief programs for their retail tenants in April, while 20 percent were reviewing options;
  • Retail tenants were more likely to obtain rent abatement or reduction from their landlord (30 percent) than office tenants (19 percent) or industrial tenants (10 percent);
  • In the context of non-essential business and mall closures, many retail owners proactively designed and allocated rental relief programs based on retailers’ risk profile and exposure to the dramatic impact of being forced to shut down;

  • Owners prioritize short-term relief for retailers who can get through this crisis. COVID-19 is accelerating the bifurcation of weaker/stronger retail concepts that had started before the pandemic hit;

  • For retail and mall reopenings, physical distancing will be challenging, with respondents concerned about costs associated with physical distancing measures;
  • More than half of survey participants are expecting cap rates of retail properties to increase over the next 12 months. Retail is also the least likely to be the target of opportunistic buying strategies;
  • Key assumptions are more significantly impacted for retail properties than for other asset classes, especially for lower quality assets, for which 87 percent of respondents expect rental rates will decrease over the next 12 months; and
  • For retail tenants, probability of renewals is expected to be lower than before the pandemic, and market participants also anticipate longer lag vacancy periods. These assumptions have not changed as significantly as they have for other property types.

The future of shopping centres is a topic of much debate these days.

“I think what you’ll have for some of those tier two malls or some of those enclosed community malls, those older ones . . . you’ll probably see some heightened obsolescence of some of those centres quite frankly because some of them were struggling pre-COVID and now the question is how many retailers are going to open back up and how many are going to be able to pay rent,” said Johnston.

“Some of the tenants in those centres already were paying what we call variable rent as they were only paying a percentage of their sales . . . Foot traffic is going to be less and there’s less reason to go to the mall and people are concerned about going to the mall. That’s going to be difficult.

“What you’re also going to see I think potentially is a flight to quality.”

Johnston said he believes some landlords will reduce rents to compensate for increased vacancy. This will give some tenants the opportunity to upgrade from a tier two mall to a tier one mall.

“We’ve seen this phenomenon in the U.S. Since 2016, there’s been 25 of these sort of enclosed older community malls that have been converted to distribution centres. What happened is they start to die a little bit. What they do have is a big site with ample parking so it’s good for trucks and trailer storage. It’s close to highways. And it’s also close to a population base. So it’s good for last mile fulfillment and we can all see how e-commerce has accelerated,” said Johnston.

“The issue is do you give up on your enclosed community mall? Do you go for rezoning to city council and try to do something perhaps a little bit different? It was certainly a phenomena we saw in the U.S. which had a lot more retail per capita than Canada but it’s something potentially I could see happening up here.”

There will be more secondary malls in the future looking at alternative uses which could mean distribution space or residential development perhaps. And the traditional retail use will probably be augmented with different uses such as daycares, and government and medical offices.

Beekeeper’s Naturals Expands Distribution with Major Retailer

By
Jessica Finch
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PHOTO: BEEKEEPER’S NATURALS

Canadian wellness brand Beekeeper’s Naturals is growing rapidly in spite of — or possibly with a little help from — the COVID-19 pandemic.

The wellness brand recently debuted in all 422 Whole Food locations across the US — a huge growth spurt for the Canadian startup. And with a growing physical presence in stores and a thriving ecommerce site, Beekeeper’s Naturals is experiencing increased demand since the onset of COVID-19.

With a range of products designed to boost the immune system and improve brain functionality, there has never been a more exemplary time for a wellness brand to market its products.

In the initial weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, Beekeeper’s Naturals saw a 100% increase in traffic to its website from the US and Canada. “Being in the field of medicine during a pandemic has been a pretty wild experience,” said Carly Stein, Founder and CEO of Beekeeper’s Naturals, as the brand saw a 600% year-over-year increase in Propolis Spray sales online, with overall online sales surging in March to 5 times the brand’s normal daily average

PHOTO: BEEKEEPER’S NATURALS

In addition to its ecommerce site, Beekeeper’s Naturals products have been available on Amazon since 2017, where its Propolis Throat Spray has held a top 5 spot in the platform’s Cold & Flu department for over a year.

With the goal of reinventing the medicine cabinet, Stein said, “bridging the world of science and nature, and building a reliable brand that is proactive and suitable for people with all different kinds of allergies and health issues” is the brand’s main focus.

The mainstay product for Beekeeper’s Naturals is the Propolis Throat Spray. An increasingly popular natural remedy in North America, propolis is a resinous mixture that honey bees produce by mixing saliva and beeswax with exudate gathered from tree buds, sap flows, or other botanical sources. It contains more than 300 beneficial compounds and is an antioxidant-dense bee product with powerful protective properties. For bees, it is used to line the hive walls to keep germs out. For humans, it supports the immune system, soothes scratchy throats, and helps combat free radical damage in the body.

An obvious shift from reactive healthcare to proactive healthcare is being seen throughout the industry, a movement, Stein said, has been accelerated by COVID.

“We were seeing a shift in people’s attitudes to health prior to COVID as people were looking for ways to take their health into their own hands, treating symptoms proactively rather than reactively, and really trying to heal their bodies in a holistic sense. People are looking for more in their medicinal products. COVID has definitely accelerated that but it was happening beforehand also.”

CARLY STEIN. PHOTO: BEEKEEPER’S NATURALS

Stein noted that despite this shift in peoples’ attitudes to healthcare, there was a huge gap in the market in terms of effective, long-term, natural solutions. “There are so many over-the-counter remedies that we have access to like the NeoCitrans and Nyquils which have undesirable ingredient profiles, including things such as refined sugars, dyes, colours, and chemicals, but more than anything those over-the-counter remedies often only treat the symptoms. They’re not addressing your overall health and what we’re seeing more and more is people looking to prevent and protect for long-term health, and not just a remedy to help them get through the day.”

“However, there’s a huge lack of scientific research when it comes to natural remedies. There are a lot of products that conceptually sound great or are well marketed or have the right celebrity endorsement, but ultimately there has been a huge lack of science conducted in the world of supplements. What Beekeeper’s Naturals is trying to provide is a range of products that come from nature — products that include a short list of ingredients that you can understand and that are going to support your overall health goals while also targeting symptoms. Really what we’re trying to do is take the scientific rigour typical to the pharmaceutical world and apply it to the supplement world.”

With a general skepticism surrounding the idea of alternative medicine, particularly in the traditional medicine world, Stein said she has noticed an interesting trend emerge through an initiative Beekeeper’s Naturals began at the beginning of the pandemic. “We started providing our products to healthcare practitioners at 50% off after everything started happening with COVID. We started hearing really positive feedback from nurses and doctors who were incorporating our supplements into their daily routines in order to get through their gruelling routines. It’s almost been like a case study. It’s been so beneficial to hear stories of health care practitioners — who are generally and rightfully sceptical around natural supplements and products and very much involved in the western healthcare model — using our products to support their body and boost their immune systems during this time.”

 

 
 
 
 
 
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When you need a quick burst of energy, what do you reach for? ⁠⚡ ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ We’d wager you probably grab some sort of caffeine—whether it’s coffee, an energy shot, or pure caffeine supplements! 🤯 ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ While caffeine is great, it can come with major downsides. ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ 😖 It can cause jitters ⁠⠀ 😳 It can disrupt sleep ⁠⠀ 🥴 It can lead to digestive issues ⁠⠀ ⚡You’ll wind up with an energy crash ⁠⠀ 😰 It can make you feel more stressed! ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ In one study, participants who were given 300mg of caffeine (the amount in a few cups of coffee/one energy drink) experienced TWICE AS MUCH STRESS during an activity as those given a placebo. ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Moral of the story is if you need to hustle and keep a cool head, caffeine may not be the best idea. ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ That’s why we take a teaspoon of B. Powered in times of fatigue. Just pure hive power to unleash your inner SUPERHERO! 🦸 ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ SOURCE ⁠ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2195579/

A post shared by Beekeeper’s Naturals (@beekeepers_naturals) on

 

 
 
 
 
 
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B.LXR is packed with brain-loving adaptogens to naturally support focus and brain health. 🌱🤓

A post shared by Beekeeper’s Naturals (@beekeepers_naturals) on

Across its social media platforms, the brand has more than 157k followers — an audience which was grown organically alongside the brand itself through word-of-mouth communications. Some notable names that have shown interest in Beekeeper’s Naturals include Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Kourtney Kardashian, and Kylie Jenner.

“We’re the only bee product brand that practices third-party pesticide testing on all of our raw ingredients, we’re going beyond organic, we’re really trying to ensure we’re giving people the purest medical-grade products. I don’t like products that have long lists of ingredients because generally that means they don’t have enough of any one active ingredient to actually make a difference to your health. What we’ve created are products with short lists of natural ingredients, that contain high-potency formulas.”

Future expansion regarding retail presence and range of available products are both in the works for the Canadian brand. “Going forward, and into 2021, we will definitely be broadening our retail presence. We’ll be selective with our partnerships, but we want to make the products as available as possible for everyone very soon.”

“New products are definitely in the works. Our goal is to reinvent the medicine cabinet. Literally what we’re doing right now, innovation-wise, is going into conventional pharmacies and pulling down the popular products off the shelf and saying, how can we do this better? Our vision is to begin with educating people about propolis because it has such incredible health benefits. It’s really interesting because we’re seeing the ‘better for you’ trend permeate every sector from clean beauty, clean food, sustainable fashion, but the one area we haven’t seen strong innovation in is medicine, and that’s because it’s hard. We’re ready to take on that challenge.”

210: Luxury Brand CHANEL Opens New Downtown Calgary Boutique

By
Retail Insider
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exc-5ef15f4a42dce443e16517b2

This week Craig & Lee talk about luxury retail Calgary, including the new street-level CHANEL boutique in the city’s downtown core. The discussion touches upon the history of CHANEL boutiques over the past decades, Holt Renfrew’s positioning of the concession and the strategy involved by the luxury retailer.

The Weekly podcast by Retail Insider Canada is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Article Details: 

  1. CHANEL Opens Impressive Street-Facing Calgary Boutique [Photos]
  2. Holt Renfrew Exits Downtown Edmonton Store After 70-Year Run [Analysis]
  3. Louis Vuitton Sees Weekend Crowds with Calgary Opening [Photos]
  4. Calgary Luxury Retail Split as Suburban Mall Seeks Dominance   

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CHANEL Opens Impressive Street-Facing Calgary Boutique [Photos]

By
Craig Patterson
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A VIEW OF THE NEW CALGARY CHANEL BOUTIQUE FROM 4 STREET SW. PHOTO: CHANEL

French luxury brand Chanel has relocated its downtown Calgary boutique in The CORE to a new ground floor space with street-front access. The impressive concession within the multi-brand Holt Renfrew store is one of only six Chanel boutiques in Canada carrying the brand’s full collection. 

The new 2,900-square-foot Chanel boutique features a distinct Chanel-branded facade facing onto 4th Street SW. A vestibule at 7 Avenue SW greets visitors with a piece of artwork by Margaret Evangeline which depicts the camellia flower that was a favourite of brand founder Coco Chanel. Window panels with a linear banded pattern frame the interior entry space which includes a doorway directly into the Chanel boutique. 

Included in the boutique is Chanel’s women’s ready-to-wear, handbags, small leather goods and accessories, eyewear, jewellery (including costume jewellery as well as fine jewellery and watches), and footwear. The boutique is divided into several spaces housing different categories. 

The first accessory salon area features handbags, small leather goods, watches and jewellery. Notable handbags and small leather good styles include seasonal interpretations of the new Chanel 19 handbag, BOY CHANEL and CHANEL’s GABRIELLE, not to mention iconic Chanel handbag styles such as the 2.55 and 11.12. The same accessory salon features watches and fine jewellery including pieces from the ‘Coco Crush’ collection as well as popular watch styles such as the J12, BOY∙FRIEND, and CODE COCO. 

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE NEW CHANEL FACADE FACING 4 ST. SW. IN CALGARY. PHOTO: CHANEL
THE VESTIBULE AT THE CORNER OF 4 ST. SW AND 7 AVENUE SW LEADING INTO HOLT RENFREW AND THE CHANEL BOUTIQUE. PHOTO: CHANEL
ENTRANCE TO THE CHANEL BOUTIQUE FROM WITHIN HOLT RENFREW’S STREET LEVEL LUXURY HALL. PHOTO: CHANEL
A VIEW OF THE FACADE OF THE CHANEL BOUTIQUE FROM WITHIN HOLT RENFREW. A HERMES BOUTIQUE IS LOCATED TO THE RIGHT OF THE PHOTO, AND GUCCI IS TO THE LEFT. PHOTO: CHANEL

A second adjacent accessory salon carries an expansive selection of Chanel costume jewellery as well as eyewear and accessories such as hats/headwear, belts, scarves, and camellias including broaches. 

The boutique’s separate ready-to-wear salon has a “private and intimate feel” according to Chanel. The design of the salon is inspired by Coco Chanel’s apartment at 31 rue Cambon in Paris and a range of clothing is contained within. Two dressing rooms feature artwork by Peter Dayton and Shelter Serra. The south side of the salon includes a range of footwear including Chanel’s iconic two-tone pump that is modified each season with styles including ballerina flats, sneakers and high-heel styles. 

The Calgary Chanel boutique was designed by Peter Marino, a notable architect who has designed some of the world’s finest retail spaces. The Calgary Chanel boutique features a range of matte white finishes that contrast with black and ivory lacquer furnishings as well as bronze and gold accents. 

The Chanel spring-summer 2020 collection is showcased in the new Calgary boutique. That includes clothing and accessories by Chanel designer Virginie Viard — she took over from Karl Lagerfeld who passed away in February of 2019. Chanel describes its latest fashion collection as being “feminine, urban and in motion, with a silhouette that is fluid and light” that “takes inspiration from the rooftops of Paris and the atmosphere of the Nouvelle Vague”. 

The new Chanel space replaces a Louis Vuitton concession that relocated to Calgary’s CF Chinook Centre in October of 2018 — Louis Vuitton grew from about 2,000 square feet at Holt Renfrew to nearly 4,500 square feet at CF Chinook. The 49,000-square-foot ground floor of Holt Renfrew in Calgary includes several luxury boutiques. Next to Chanel is a Gucci accessory boutique as well as accessory shops for Prada, Celine, Miu Miu, and Burberry. Other main floor boutiques carrying a range of ready-to-wear clothing include Hermes and Loro Piana. The street level also includes a 6,000-square-foot women’s footwear department with a Roger Vivier section, a jewellery department with a Tiffany & Co. boutique, as well as a beauty hall facing onto 8 Avenue SW. 

THE NORTH SIDE OF THE CHANEL READY-TO-WEAR SALON AT HOLT RENFREW IN CALGARY. PHOTO: CHANEL
LOOKING AT THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE CHANEL READY-TO-WEAR SALON IN CALGARY, FEATURING FOOTWEAR. PHOTO: CHANEL
  • ONE OF THE DRESSING ROOMS IN THE NEW CHANEL BOUTIQUE IN CALGARY. PHOTO: CHANEL
  • CHANEL READY-TO-WEAR SALON. PHOTO: CHANEL

Chanel has had a boutique presence in Calgary for over two decades. In March of 1998, Chanel opened at a considerably smaller Holt Renfrew boutique in downtown Calgary which included a gala event to mark its debut. That Chanel boutique spanned about 825 square feet and was located on the second level of the Holt Renfrew store. The Chanel opening coincided with an expansion of the Holt Renfrew store, which added a third floor spanning more than 10,000 square feet to grow its contemporary brands — prior to the expansion, the two retail levels at Holt Renfrew in Calgary measured only about 27,000 square feet. 

When Holt Renfrew relocated across the street in 2009 into an impressive 150,000-square-foot building formerly occupied by Eaton’s, Chanel opened a 1,500-square-foot boutique alongside other luxury brands such as Akris, Prada, and Gucci. Calgary is the only city in Alberta to boast having its own Chanel boutique — and while Edmonton will see several more luxury brands open at West Edmonton Mall, the city lost its Holt Renfrew store when it closed in January of this year.  

When Chanel opened in Calgary in 1998, the company’s then head of public relations Anny Kananjian told the Calgary Herald that Chanel had chosen Calgary because of its “booming economy” along with the fact that the city had the second highest number of corporate head offices in Canada after Toronto. “There’s a lot of disposable income in Calgary,” she said at the time.  

A NEWSPAPER CLIPPING FROM MARCH 1998 MARKING THE OPENING OF CALGARY’S FIRST CHANEL BOUTIQUE AT HOLT RENFREW IN CALGARY. IMAGE VIA NEWSPAPERS.COM

Chanel operates six boutiques in Canada as well as one standalone beauty boutique. In Vancouver, Chanel operates a 5,000-square foot-street level concession at Holt Renfrew, which a couple of years ago was said to be doing astronomically high sales numbers. In Toronto, Chanel operates three fashion boutiques and one beauty boutique. That includes a standalone 8,700-square-foot flagship store at 98 Yorkville Avenue, a 1,850-square-foot boutique nearby at Holt Renfrew on Bloor Street, and a 3,500-square-foot boutique at Holt Renfrew in the Yorkdale Shopping Centre.

Last year, Chanel opened a 1,280-square-foot beauty boutique at the Holt Renfrew Centre in Toronto adjacent to the concourse level Holt Renfrew beauty hall. In the nearly completed Holt Renfrew Ogilvy store in Montreal, Chanel unveiled an impressive bi-level 3,300 square foot street-level boutique near the entrance to the adjacent Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences. 

Despite the downturn in oil prices and recent challenges including COVID-19, Calgary is home to some very wealthy households. A former buyer at Holt Renfrew explained that many of Calgary’s wealthy were shopping elsewhere for high-end fashions, particularly Vancouver and Las Vegas. Given restricted travel at this time, some affluent women in Calgary and in other parts of Alberta are more likely to make the trip to the new downtown Calgary boutique to get their Chanel fix — and they’ll have to do it in the store as Chanel does not sell online.

That has resulted in a significant sales hit for Chanel recently, which closed its boutiques globally during the COVID-19 shutdown. In 2019, Chanel’s global sales were said to have surpassed US $12-billion and the brand’s 2020 sales are expected to be considerably less because of the shutdowns. 

Retail Before, During & After COVID-19 in Canada: An Analysis

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Bruce Winder

Retail specialist Bruce Winder has seen rapid change in the industry during his 30-year career but the pace of change in recent years has been accelerating.

And in his new book, RETAIL Before, During & After COVID-19, Winder outlines the even faster acceleration the retail industry will experience in the coming years.

Winder, a retail analyst, consultant and President of Bruce Winder Retail, said he decided to write the book because he felt there was a story to tell.

“I’ve seen retail change so much in the last five years. I think the last five years have changed more than the previous 20 really in terms of just the number of pieces, the number of components, that are moving. The changes on the suppliers’ side, the retail side, the real estate side. The amount of change was huge,” said Winder.

“I thought I’d like to explore that and  come up with my own perspective on where retail’s at and where I think it’s going to go. I think this book is a great source of knowledge for anyone in the retail industry or adjacent to it.”

“You’re going to continue to see the same pace of change if not a greater pace of change now.”

Winder has worked about 22 years in “big” retail at  major chains such as Canadian Tire, HBC in the Zellers division, and Sears Canada. He also did a stint at Airmiles. He’s worked on the supplier side as well for companies like Mattel, Dorel, and many others. He’s been a consultant and teaches business at two private Toronto and Mississauga colleges.

The book, in Kindle and paperback format, is available on Amazon and Winder is donating five percent of his proceeds to mental health programs in the U.S. and Canada.

The book includes:

  • Comprehensive analysis and categorization of over 70 key US and Canadian retailers before the COVID-19 crisis emerged;
  • His top 80 retail trends as of February 2020 – from the perspective of customers, employees, suppliers, managers, investors and retailers as well as a review on technology;
  • Detailed account of how COVID-19 impacted the US and Canadian retail industries during the pandemic;
  • Forecast on the short term, medium term and long term impact the pandemic will have on retail in the future; and
  • Over 800 references from leading media outlets over the last two years.

“One of the things I see is a further disparity in income and wealth. I see the folks at the top of the pyramid getting richer and I see folks in the middle continuing to be squeezed. I see people  at the bottom becoming even more economically challenged. ” said Winder

He said there will be continued acceleration of online sales. It might not be at the same rate as during the heat of the pandemic but there will be a marked increase from before the pandemic to after. Consumers have gotten used to it. They enjoy the convenience.

“You’re also going to see a reduction in brick and mortar stores after the pandemic as customers shop online more,” added Winder.

Many suppliers will go bankrupt as well but the remaining brands will sell direct more. “You’re going to see an acceleration of suppliers selling direct. That was already a trend-direct to consumer or DTC. But you’re going to see an acceleration of that too.”

RETAIL Before, During & After COVID-19 by Bruce Winder

For the next little while, said Winder, there will be a significant number of retailer bankruptcies as a result of the crisis.

“It’s just too long a time to go without operating at full capacity, not generating as much cash as before the virus struck. If you’re  an essential food retailer, essential products retailer, you’re having a great year. You’re having the best year ever,” he said. “But if you’re a non-essential retailer that sells  footwear or  apparel or you’re a department store, you’re going to have a really hard time and a lot of those folks are going to go bankrupt.”

Winder said more people will join the Shopify’s of the world and set up their own storefronts from home. Many new and different businesses will open up as well. “Retailers, suppliers, and consumers will innovate to survive.”

But Winder said he also sees the consumer being more thrifty too with a flight to value and the opening of more used product stores. “Look for a greater mix of used clothing at retailers. Walmart has already partnered with thredUP.”

“If you look at investors, you’re going to see a continued polarization toward the FAANG stocks — Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. You’re seeing those top folks going to control even more of the retail industry. Amazon has grown even stronger as a result of this,” he said. “Canada’s own Shopify will benefit significantly from this new abnormal.”

“You’re going to see governments get a little bit more involved in the short term. Government is something that has been a bit of a dirty word for a lot of business people. But governments have played a new role in the future of retail in terms of acting as a partner to try and help get the economy up and running again” said Winder.

“The other part is technology. Technology is going to accelerate and not just online. Online is the obvious one but you’re going to have more augmented reality as folks use apps to try and see what a couch would look like in their house or how they look trying on garments. The use of technology is going to increase significantly . . . You’re going to see a growth in technology to aid in touchless retail. Cashierless stores, apps, facial recognition, AI, and more.”

“From a real estate perspective, There’s going to be a huge demand for urban online warehouses because everybody’s going to be shopping online more. “There’s going to be a reckoning for malls. Tier one malls will eventually do OK. Tier three malls will close and become mixed-use — some tier two as well.”

“You’re going to see  huge pressure on the delivery infrastructure. You’re going to see growth in delivery apps and consolidation in that industry”.

Q&A with Vince Guzzo, AKA ’Mr. Sunshine’ on His Career & the State of the Movie Industry in Canada

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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Vince Guzzo

Vince Guzzo is a well-known entrepreneur based in Quebec who is owner and President of Cinémas Guzzo. He also owns a pizzeria and construction company. Guzzo is also a dragon on the popular Dragons Den CBC TV series,

He spoke to Retail Insider recently about his career and the state of the movie industry in Canada.

Retail Insider: Can you tell us a little bit about your career?

Guzzo: “It’s my fathers’ company. My father bought his first theatre in 1974 and then I started working with him right out of university while going part-time to law school. From Vice President to President. I’ve been President by title in the last only two years. But I’ve been doing the same job I do even though I didn’t have the title for the past 15 years.”

RI: How many locations do you have and where?

Guzzo: “We have nine locations with a 10th one under construction. We’re at 144 screens. Nine IMAX. All the theatres are in Montreal, greater Montreal, as far north as Two Mountains which is the north shore of Montreal and as far south as Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu which is about half an hour from the Vermont border which is the one under construction right now. All of our theatres are stadium seating so we have no old sloped theatres. Our oldest theatre right now is a 1998. It was the first theatres we built in 1998. They all have arcade facilities, they all have full stadium. Three only locations do not have IMAX screens. We’re also the only guys to have double IMAX screens in three locations.”

RI: Pre-COVID 2019, what was business like for the company?

Guzzo: “The movie business is on a seven to 10-year cycle and we were I would tell you coming out of the negative cycle. The worst of the cycle was in 2014 and things were basically looking up year-after-year. And then last year with Avengers: Endgame I think it was the relaunch of these big, huge box office pictures. This year we had a few pictures back to back. We were going to have Fast & Furious, we were going to have Tenet, we were going to have Wonder Woman and the James Bond. They’re still there but they’ve pushed in a way that we’re probably going to have nine months worth of movies in six months. It’s going to be a great end of half a year. Next year we have a series of pictures including the Avatar trilogy is going to come back. So we’re going to have the second Avatar and then the year after the third Avatar.

“It was an upswing. We were looking up as an industry. While everybody believed streaming platforms was going to eat away at us gradually I disagreed with it. I think COVID-19 while it shut us down, and that’s a huge negative, I think the positive is that it made a lot of people realize that streaming platforms are nothing else but a fancy word for TV. And all of sudden rumours of an Amazon wanting to come in to the brick and mortar business of movies where there’s no real real estate to buy — the fact that a streaming platform would consider that purchase for me tells me that they’ve realized that the movie business is here to stay and there’s going to be an upswing once people get un-quarantined or un-confined.

“While some people may believe that people will have a hard time going back to movie theatres, the truth of the matter is one of the only rare entertainment venues that exist where social distancing was being practiced even before it was the buzzword of the year is movie theatres. Nowhere have you ever seen or ever heard of a movie theatre being half full and somebody coming to sit right next to you. I think this social distancing is easy. People will come back to theatres.”

RI: As you look forward and beyond, what’s your outlook for the cinema industry in the future?

Guzzo: “My big concern about reopening movie theatres is I want to reopen them when there’s actual movies to play and not just play the vintage stuff because the truth of the matter is the vintage stuff really won’t do that well. Most entertainment industries, including the movie business usually had these huge upswings when they came out of recessions and/or pandemics. After the Spanish Flu, theatres had a boom. After the Hong Kong Flu, theatres had a boom in the 70s. After great social events, tragedies like for example 9/11, everybody thought nobody is going to go back to these places where there’s a whole bunch of them together and allow potential terrorist attacks, whatever. That wasn’t the case. Actually there was a huge boom in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 which seemed to end in about 2010 and then the swing started to go down and the bottom of that swing was 2014 and then it started coming back up.

“I suspect what’s going to happen is with the upswing of the natural cycle of the movie industry, plus this pandemic, I think we’re going to have a huge boom the last six months of the year and a huge boom in 2021, 2022 and I would probably predict even 2023 based on some of the titles that I’m seeing.”

RI: What’s happening in terms of reopening of theatres?

Guzzo: “We mentioned at a certain point to the government that we wanted to reopen the 19th. Then we pushed it to the 26th and now with Tenet being confirmed on the 17th of July and will land on the 24th of July and then Wonder Woman on the 14th of August we’re now asking the government to open on the 3rd of July. I know in the rest of the country in Canada they’re basically talking about the 26th or the 3rd. And our Minister of Culture in Quebec has said we are hoping to reopen theatres before the 24th of June. You have to remember the 24th of June is our civic holiday (Saint Jean Baptiste Day) for our province. But once again the problem is we’re not restaurants. We open up and I can sell you my pizza I was making six months ago. We sell movies. The movies that we’re going to show, we don’t make them. We’re in discussions with various suppliers of movies to make sure that they inline their movies in a way that makes sense.

RI: Any plans of expansion in terms of the number of locations?

Guzzo: “Well we have two locations right now that need to get worked. The first one is obviously the one that’s in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu that we’re basically finishing. Because of the way construction is going and because of the delays movie theatres can’t open whenever they want. They’ve got to open inline with movies. So we’re looking now at the end of September or early October to open that location. As for other locations, we have approached various circuits in the U.S., which will remain nameless, and offer them that we would be interested to look at their circuit if they’re willing to sell. We were looking at building out West and creating a certain sense of competition out there. I’m a little concerned about what the landscape is going to look out there.

“Going to the movies in Canada is considered an entertainment form. In the U.S. going to the movies is considered a religion. People go to the movies very religiously in the U.S. For example, you’ll see drops in attendance in Canada when the weather is super nice. Because of our bad weather, when we get those incredible days we spend them outside and not in a movie theatre. In the U.S., you can have 30 plus degree days and people will be in line going to the movies because it’s Friday and that’s when the new movies come out and they want to go see a movie. So if I would have to invest big dollars I’d rather invest them in a cult-like following of customers versus ‘we like you but it’s a nice day so we’re not coming kind of atmosphere’.”

RI: On a personal note, when we have a crisis like we’ve seen currently and a few years ago with the financial crisis, how do you as an executive deal with things like that in making decisions?

Guzzo: “The first thing you have to do when something like this occurs is you’ve got to stay extremely calm. I always like to say nothing good has ever come from panic. So I don’t understand a lot of people seem to panic, and they get concerned and they worry, but it doesn’t give you anything. You might as well just relax, take a breather and remember that things will eventually get to normal. So you’ve just got to ride the wave. You can’t do anything extreme . . . Ultimately your insurance policy should be before. You take insurance before an event occurs and not in the middle of the event. And normally that means keeping anywhere between 10 and 20 per cent of your annual income very liquid. It makes me sleep at night. The most important thing in a pandemic is actually to be cool, calm and collected so that you can actually analyze and influence any public decision that’s got to get done without being in panic mode. When you’re in panic mode, it comes out in your decision process and people don’t trust people who panic. It’s a certain military style discipline that needs to come out.”

Cadillac Fairview Launches App to Connect Consumers with Retailers as Canadian Malls Reopen

By
Mario Toneguzzi
-
LiVE by CF is a new mobile app developed to enhance the Canadian shopping experience, at home or in CF shopping centres. (CNW Group/Ravel by CF)

Canadian shopping centre owner Cadillac Fairview has launched a new mobile app to help consumers as they return to the in-person retail experience across the country.

The LiVE by CF app will be rolled out at all 19 CF shopping centres across Canada in English and French. It is customizable to a shopper’s local mall and offers access to more than 65 retailers and hundreds of thousands of searchable products. It is available in the App Store and Google Play store for iOs and Android.

Jose Ribau, Executive Vice President, Digital & Innovation of Cadillac Fairview, said the company set out to address retailer and consumer pain points across the entire shopping journey from discovery to delivery.

“The success of CF and our retail clients is inextricably linked and through a focus on digitizing the experience, we are committed to strengthening our relationships with our retail partners and helping them as they navigate this unprecedented time,” he said.

“There’s a different shopping behaviour now especially during the pandemic. We’ve seen increases in digital experiences. People are shopping with e-commerce. The physical stores are going to require, and are requiring, a lot of changes. So how do we as a landlord, how do we set up a platform that allows us to do the best of both? Imagine the efficiency and the promise of digital but the beauty and the inspiration of physical.

LiVE by CF will be rolled out at all 19 CF shopping centre properties across Canada in English and French. (CNW Group/Ravel by CF)

“There’s only a few examples in the world where we’ve seen this and I think there’s a tremendous opportunity for us to do that in Canada and the timing with respect to the pandemic just seemed like it made sense.”

Ribau said the app gives the shopping centre the ability to bridge the digital and physical shopping experiences with a focus on helping retailers optimize their brick and mortar investment.

“It starts with an app. It starts with the ability to interact with a customer and then ultimately it leads to this being on really the customers’ terms,” he said.

The LiVE by CF app can help shoppers in a number of different ways:

  • A mall directory in their pocket complete with property-specific maps and icon-based navigation cues to help plan the most efficient shopping routes;

  • Access helpful information related to COVID-19 safety protocols, such as up-to-date mall opening hours and the location of hand sanitizer stations;

  • Up-to-date retailer hours, including which ones are or are not yet open;

  • Search and tag favourite products right in the app for quick recall when shopping; and

  • Receive special offers directly from CF retailer partners for in-property savings

 

 
 
 
 
 
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⁣At Cadillac Fairview, we're always seeking to empower and support our retail partners. Today we announce our newest innovation - the LiVE by CF shopping app. Available now across Canada. Click the link in our bio to learn more. // Chez Cadillac Fairview, nous sommes en constante recherche pour habiliter et appuyer nos partenaires de détail. Aujourd’hui, nous annonçons notre nouvelle innovation : l’application de magasinage LiVE par CF. Disponible partout au Canada. Cliquez sur le lien dans notre bio pour en savoir plus. ⠀ --⠀ ⠀ ⁣#ravelbycf // #canretail // #cadillacfairview // #shopping // #canadianretailnews // #retailinnovation // #retailstrategy // #digitaltransformation // #retailindustry // #retailnews // #technology // #cantech // #digitalsolutions // #retailtech // #innovation // #technews // #canbiz // #cdnbiz // #cdntech // #retailrecovery ⠀

A post shared by Cadillac Fairview (@cadillac_fairview) on

Cadillac Fairview is one of the largest owners, operators and developers of best-in-class office, retail and mixed-use properties in North America. The Cadillac Fairview portfolio is owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, a diversified global investor which administers the pensions of more than 327,000 active and retired school teachers. The real estate portfolio also includes investments in retail, mixed-use and industrial real estate in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Valued at over $31 billion, the Canadian portfolio includes 35 million square feet of leasable space at 68 properties in Canada, including landmark developments, such as Toronto-Dominion Centre, CF Toronto Eaton Centre, CF Pacific Centre, CF Chinook Centre, Tour Deloitte, and CF Carrefour Laval.

For customers, having the mall directory in the palm of their hands, is a safer way for them to find where they want to go. Many COVID related information is available on the app.

“It’s very much about utility. The first release is really about that COVID recovery help the retailers. Some retailers have specials on or offers. We’re going to place those in there too so you know there’s things to do within there. But really the primary premise is around efficiency and safety,” said Ribau.

“There’s a lot of difficulty on the retailers’ side right now. Their marketing budgets are slashed, they’ve had to lay people off, they’re not really focused on what I call transformational events and transformational experiences. So what we’ve done is we’ve established a team of experts that do this for a living and our services are available with those retailers to partner with us. So if they want to load their product inventory into the app, if they want to promote their brands, if they’re doing a pop up of some kind, we’re open for business.”

Ravel by CF is the digital innovation hub of Cadillac Fairview — an organization focused on removing the friction from today's retail shopping experience, and unleashing the untapped potential of physical space and customer experience within some of the world's best commercial real estate, said the company.

Q&A with Jean-Christophe Bedos, CEO of Birks, on His Career and the Future of Retail in Canada

By
Mario Toneguzzi
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JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BEDOS

Jean-Christophe Bedos is President and CEO of Birks. He has been in his current role since January 2012. He came to Birks after working as President and CEO of Boucheron in Paris.

He spoke to Retail Insider recently about his career and the state of the retail industry in Canada.

Retail Insider: Can you tell us a little bit about your career?

Bedos: “I started work in the luxury goods industry in 1988 and at the time I was studying business and law and I needed to pay for my student accommodation in Paris. So I started a student internship at the Cartier international head office in Paris. And this became something much more. From graduation I was very privileged that in June 1988 Cartier offered me a job and I’ve been in the industry ever since.”

Retail Insider: Over the years, what has been the reason you’ve enjoyed the retail industry?

Bedos: “I started from a jewelry company and watches. I was working in the watch division and gradually I moved into marketing and merchandising and actually Cartier International after four years sent me to London in the UK and this is where I started retail because the Cartier London company was managing a network of stores, obviously Cartier stores, but also a wholesale division where we were selling Cartier watches to jewellers in the UK. This is where I discovered the nitty gritty of the retail industry.”

RI: Pre-COVID 2019, what was business like for Birks?

Bedos: “Pre-COVID, we had a very good year. We got hit by COVID at the time when we were finishing our fiscal year. Our financial year ends on the 30th of March . . . We were finishing a very strong year that was essentially due to the fact that we had spent many years renovating our retail network, working very hard on positioning the Birks brand on the Canadian market and investing in store renovations. We had and still have an optimistic view on the market for hard luxury, hard luxury being jewelry and watches. We invested a lot in our renovations throughout Canada.”

RI: As we come out of COVID, what is your outlook for the industry?

Bedos: “We have worked on finding 10 major trends in the industry moving forward - not just short-term coming out of COVID but also long-term. There is obviously an increase in digital and we see our internet sales, our e-commerce sales, how much business has increased on the digital side. I don’t think this is going to reverse back. People have learned to change their shopping habits whether it’s young generations or older generations . . . Less technology savvy people have now discovered e-commerce and the convenience of it. E-commerce will keep increasing in our view.

“There is also another trend which is clear and impacts our luxury goods industry which is a decrease in international travel. For quite some time, we’ll have lower inbound visitors in Canada. The flip side of that coin is that the Canadian people who used to travel a lot internationally and probably shopped for luxury outside of Canada will probably discover luxury retail in Canada and come to Birks. They used to probably shop elsewhere . . . We see great potential in actually increasing our penetration in this domestic market in Canada through this population of affluent consumers who will travel less outside of Canada.”

RI: How many stores are there in Canada? Any plans of expansion in terms of the number of stores?

Bedos: “We currently have directly-operated stores 28 stores from East to West. We don’t have plans for expansion. Not at the moment because what’s on top of our expansion program is actually to increase the penetration of our wholesale distribution in Canada and outside of Canada. With the Birks jewelry brand we have a significant program to develop a network of independent jewellers throughout Canada and our strategy so far has been to open independent jewellers where we used to have a store in the past where Birks used to cover the entire Canada and was present in almost every community in Canada.

“I’m talking here about 20, 30 years back when Birks had probably close to 100 stores in Canada. It’s no longer the case. We are focusing our investments very much in urban areas, around the big urban centres like Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal. And outside of those areas we have very successfully actually opened those with jewellers who are very happy to have the Birks brand within a multi-brand environment and we are very successful.”

RI: On a personal note, when we have a crisis like we’ve seen currently and a few years ago with the financial crisis, how do you as an executive deal with things like that in making decisions?

Bedos: “I have a very close team. I am very privileged because we meet every day over webinars obviously. Video conferencing has kept us very close as a management team. We address every aspect of our business. The question for us was very much during the last three months to allow investment in e-commerce. Very important. Having to find trends as I mentioned before and trying to keep a vision above and beyond the pressure of the super short-term where we have to manage the crisis is like being in the trenches and trying to cope with the everyday challenges.

“We need to keep a long-term vision with direction because if we don’t have a direction we don’t know where we are going. That’s why we’ve been keeping an eye on industry trends. One of those trends actually is because of the COVID what is called experiential luxury, ie. travel as I mentioned but also restaurants, hotels, spas, luxury experiences, all of these have decreased dramatically and we believe there is a very strong opportunity for jewelry to replace experiential luxury because people need to consume. They need to please themselves. They need to please someone. They need to gift. They need to show their love, their appreciation.”

RI: Any final thoughts?

Bedos: “I personally find it challenging how difficult it has been to obtain support for the retail industry in Canada especially. We’ve been looking at initiatives from governments all over the world and Canada’s been proving to be a difficult place for retail because so far we haven’t seen a significant subsidy program from the government and the landlords are very powerful in Canada, especially the mall owners, shopping centre owners. I wish there would be more collaboration within the industry between retailers and landlords in order to find a common solution. I truly believe if we don’t collaborate between Canadian landlords and Canadian retailers what we are going to see is a high risk of bankruptcies and retailers going under protection and that is not good for Canadian retail because we’re doing the work and preparing the ground for foreign retailers and especially very big e-commerce retailers to take over from Canadian symbols.

“The risk is the loss of Canadian identity within our malls because if too many retailers go down due to the lack of support and help from landlords or from the government we will have a lot of vacancy, the commercial value of malls is going to decrease. Who is going to replace the vacancy? Is it international very powerful retailers? Is it no one? And therefore creating a landscape and an ecosystem in Canada where the Canadian retailers will be very few and will have to fight against very strong retailers from the U.S., from Europe and from Asia and fighting big players whether Amazon or Alibaba.

“I don’t want this to be a lost battle. I think the Canadian retail industry should really act together - both retailers and landlords together with the federal government - to actually support the future of the Canadian retail industry. Strangely and surprisingly I have found it striking because it seems to be very difficult to reach an agreement. It’s simple. It’s not rent relief. It’s about supporting retailers who don’t have enough cash sometimes to survive more than two or three months.”

Downtown Chatham Centre Aims to Revitalize Downtown Retail with Promenade Proposal

By
Mario Toneguzzi
-
downtown chatham. photo: downtownchatham.com

The Downtown Chatham Centre wants to create a more pedestrian-friendly and social gathering environment as it continues to be Chatham-Kent’s premier shopping destination.

The Centre has put together a proposal to not only enhance the shopping area but also help revitalize the downtown of the southern Ontario community.

Regina Stockus, the mall’s manager of leasing and special events, said the challenge in the current economic environment is getting people downtown to shop and spend time.

“Now is an opportunity to resurrect new ideas. Shopping malls across Canada, especially in small towns, rural towns of less than 100,000 people like we are here in Chatham near Detroit, we are having our own mall challenge like malls across Canada,” she said.

“We have to be creative . . . It needs a spark. We’ve got to do something more.”

DCC is located in the heart of downtown Chatham, next to Tecumseh Park and the Thames River. It was built in 1982 and today has about 80 tenants over about 275,000 square feet. It occupies about two blocks of downtown main street – King Street.

“We are an important entity in this city,” she said.

Stockus has put together a proposal for the municipality’s officials to help rejuvenate Chatham’s downtown core.

This proposal serves not only to enhance our DCC but help the whole Downtown too. With so many stores closing, the area looks deserted. This is not good for the image of such a great and historical city like Chatham. We believe that if we do nothing, nothing will happen and the situation will worsen. Thus we believe a more aggressive alternate should be considered,” said the proposal.

“We all know that something has to be done to bring life back to the downtown core of Chatham. This is no easy task. But we have many talented and professional people working and living here in Chatham/Kent. We have the know how and we have the skills. We must, push forward and change our ‘Aversion To Risk/Criticism Mentality,’ and do what we know we must do to make Chatham the most modern and prettiest center in the province, maybe even the country.”

Ideas include:

  • Removal of all traffic from the street;
  • Removal of curbs and sidewalks, addition of new paving;
  • Consolidation of street furniture to facilitate pedestrian movement;
  • Improve connectivity in the city center;
  • Provide a high-quality and attractive environment;
  • Create a space that supports businesses;
  • Encourage a diverse range of people to live and spend time in the city center; and
  • Revitalize the city’s forgotten alleyways by turning them into vibrant laneways.

Stockus said the shopping centre has tried in the past year to put on a number of events to attract people there and to the downtown including art exhibits, line dancing, the 100-mile mall walk – events intended to bring people into the mall and to the area.

“The mall is not separate from the downtown. They’re joined at the navel,” she said.

Stockus said many big European cities have created a centre – a hub – of activity where people congregate to eat and drink and shop.

“The downtown needs something like that,” she said.

And the COVID-19 pandemic simply highlighted some of the issues and challenges that were already present in the downtown.

“This whole challenge of the downtown has been going on for quite some time. At least 10 years, I’d say. What is the solution? The solution is we have to do a paradigm shift. It has to change. It cannot be the same that it was,” explained Stockus. “We have to throw out the old shoes and bring in the new ones even though the old ones were comfortable.

“This is not a new idea. Many cities all have this. It’s not a new concept about a street closure and creating a hub . . . It’s not something new. It’s not insurmountable. It’s just a willingness.”

Majority of Retailers & Businesses Not Able to Pay Rent as Costs Accrue Amid Reopenings

By
Mario Toneguzzi
-
QUEEN ST WEST, TORONTO. PHOTO: RETAIL INSIDER

Commercial rent continues to be the most critical aspect of many businesses in Canada as they struggle to survive through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Toronto Association Of Business Improvement Areas, in partnership with other groups, has been conducting surveys around the issue and the results are striking for the future of many of those small businesses.

The latest survey, which included businesses in Toronto, Guelph, and Ottawa, found that 72 percent of businesses could not make all of June’s rent while 63 percent did not pay all of May’s rent and 50 percent April’s rent. Also, 78 percent of businesses feel they will not make all of July’s rent.

It’s a growing number and an increasingly worrisome situation.

John Kiru, Executive Director of the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas, said each of the recent surveys got progressively higher in terms of businesses having challenges.

“It confirmed what our expectations were. The bottom line is that we felt 40 to possibly 50 percent of the businesses on Main Street will likely fail if this pandemic went three to four months,” said Kiru. “What these surveys have shown is that we are on that trajectory.

“Small businesses traditionally have one to two months staying power in terms of paying bills, in terms of paying their rents. That third survey brought those numbers forward for us. The third one also included beyond Toronto as we also reached out to Ottawa and Guelph. We wanted to show that it’s not a Toronto centric problem and that it’s not an urban centric problem. That these questions were relevant and the actual numbers for communities right across the province.”

Kiru said the longer the pandemic environment continues the recovery of existing businesses on Main Street will be tougher.

“We will lose those businesses no doubt about it,” he said. “Recovery is not only going to have to focus on reopening our businesses and advocating for some infusion of dollars to help these businesses recover, continuation of some of these programs such as the wage subsidy to give to restaurants. You don’t just flip a switch in these businesses. You need some time to get your feet underneath you to build your cash flow.

“Our recovery is no longer focused on simply reopening existing business people. It will continue to be that but also added to that is another layer and that is filling the vacancies that have been created as a result of this and filling those vacancies in a way that balances the neighbourhood and makes it still an attractive destination for people to come out and visit.”

Stephen Maciejowski, Director of Operations & Special Projects Old Town Toronto / St Lawrence Market Neighbourhood BIA / King East Design District, said he too found it interesting and concerning the number of businesses that each month are finding it increasingly more difficult to pay their rents.

“It tells me that people are slowly running out of the cushions they may have had and they’re trying to figure out who do I pay with the little money I have left in order to try and stay afloat,” said Maciejowski. “For some of them, they’re running out even if they were able to get that $40,000 loan (from the federal government). That only lasts so long especially in downtown Toronto.

“For a lot of them they’re wondering if they really want to go further in debt to try to save the business when they don’t know when they’re going to be able to open again and how long it’s going to take them to get it back up to somewhere even close to operating at 100 percent.”

The survey’s key recommended actions are:

• Enact a provincial moratorium on commercial evictions OR make the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) program mandatory OR take the lead from BC and enact a moratorium on commercial evictions for landlords who are eligible to apply but choose not to;

• Process to apply is cumbersome, unclear, application portal has had issues and landlords are resistant to releasing their financial and other documentation;

• Allow commercial businesses/tenants the right to apply for the program;

• Landlords don’t want to contribute 25 percent to the program. This amount needs to be reduced or allow landlords and tenants to negotiate the best way to cover the remaining 50 percent; and

• Reduce eligibility criteria, not all businesses have lost 70 percent, even 30 percent revenue loss is significant for most of these small margin businesses.

Some other key findings from the survey include:

• 42 percent of businesses do not qualify for the wage subsidy; 28 percent do not qualify for the $40,000 loan; 36 percent do not qualify for the rent assistance and 11 percent do not qualify for any of the government programs’;

• Almost 70 percent of businesses have relied on the government loan to cover expenses;

• 61 percent of businesses who qualify indicate their landlord has not applied for the rent assistance program;

• Of those who have not applied, 62 percent of businesses think their landlord will not apply for the rent assistance program;

• 41 percent of businesses who needed rent accommodation indicate their landlord did not accommodate them;

• 29 percent of businesses are concerned about being locked-out (down from 43.9 percent in May’s survey);

• 95 percent of landlords did not receive all of June’s rent (81 percent did not receive all of May’s rent and 74 percent April’s rent, per previous surveys);

• 85 percent of landlords feel they will not receive all of July’s rent;

• 71 percent of landlords do not qualify for the wage subsidy; 63 percent do not qualify for the $40,000 loan; 28 percent do not qualify for the rent assistance and 14 percent do not qualify for any of the programs;

• Less than 40 percent of landlords are benefiting from the available financial programs;

• 52 percent of landlords who qualify indicate they have not applied for the rent assistance program; and

• Of those who have not applied, 33 percent of landlords indicate they do not plan to apply for the rent assistance program.

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