Most readers of this article are surely familiar with the ironic phrase “may you live in interesting times” (attributed to traditional Chinese culture), whereby one wishes ill on another. Unfortunately, it appears that such a curse has been placed on the New York real estate industry. From the Amazon-Long Island City debacle to the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 and the possibility of “good cause eviction,” i.e., universal rent control (among many other lowlights), real estate practitioners have been pressed into duty as amateur psychologists to help clients navigate the cascade of “interesting” events that have occurred since the beginning of 2019.

Unfortunately, yet another destructive proposal is pending in the New York City Council and is making owners even more anxious than they otherwise were: commercial rent control. The first iteration of commercial rent control came in 2018 in the form of the so-called “Small Business Jobs Survival Act,” a deceptively-titled bill that would have compelled landlords to renew commercial leases for terms of at least 10 years, severely restricted landlords’ ability to refuse to renew such leases, and given existing commercial tenants the right to remain in place and renew tenancies at certain specified rents. While that bill died, commercial rent control proponents in the City Council were just getting started.