No Safety Net for Restaurant Industry

Joshua M. Bowman, chair of the firm’s Hospitality Practice Group, was quoted in Banker & Tradesman on March 22, 2020. The article, “No Safety Net for Restaurant Industry,” delves into why the restaurant industry is calling on lawmakers to slash taxes and require that insurers cover business losses from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.

Read the full article in Banker & Tradesman (subscriber content).

From the article:

“Restaurant leases typically do not excuse rent even for pandemics and other natural disasters, said Joshua Bowman, a partner at Sherin and Lodgen in Boston and chair of its hospitality practice group. But many of Bowman’s landlord clients are offering rent abatements, recognizing it’s in their best interests.

‘Nobody knows how long the crisis is going to go on. But we will get through it and when things start to get back to normal, landlords are going to want good tenants to remain in place,’ Bowman said.

… A bill filed March 16 in the New Jersey legislature would force business interruption insurers to cover such losses, and discussions have begun on Beacon Hill about similar legislation, Bowman said.”