Title
Recommendation to Authorize the City Manager, or Designee, to Negotiate and Execute Rent Relief Agreements with Commercial Tenants in City-Owned Alameda Point Properties via a $1.5 Million Loan Conversion Assistance Program and Implement an Alameda Point Non-Profit and Spirits Alley Businesses Rent Relief Program in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic; and
Adoption of Resolution Appropriating $1.5 Million from the Base Reuse Fund for the Loan Conversion Assistance Program and $315,000 from the General Fund to Assist the Alameda Theater. (Community Development 858/442)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact communities around the world, including Alameda. On March 17, 2020, the City Council adopted an urgency measure, consistent with Section 3-12 of the City Charter. The March 17 ordinance authorized certain actions until April 7, 2020, and was subsequently extended until the State's declaration of emergency is rescinded, or sooner should it be appropriate to lift the local emergency declaration prior to State action, by City Council on April 21, 2020. The City Council discussed a rent deferral and abatement policy at its April 21, 2020 meeting and asked staff to come back with more information and recommendations on a potential rent abatement program.
Research into what other commercial landlords were doing revealed that rent abatement was not being offered, but as the crisis continued longer than anyone had anticipated, landlords continue to be creative in addressing the financial impacts. One of the proposed programs staff identified in May, and the City Council approved, which was an alternative to abating past due rent, was a loan conversion assistance program for commercial tenants in City-owned properties who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the loan conversion approach, the City of Alameda (City) may agree to convert the past due rent into a loan payab...
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