The leases typically have annual rent bumps built in to them when originally negotiated. It’s good for tenants so they can plan ahead. However, when your business runs pretty thin and then you get a pandemic and market rents have increased significantly as well, a lot of the planning for the eventual extension negotiations goes out the window. And the bar owner can only push so much cost to customers before they go to the spot down the block. It ain’t easy. I don’t think naive is a fair description of the tenant in most cases. They are very much aware of the train coming down the tunnel towards them but have limited options to dodge it. You can’t avoid all risks while running food/retail.

In reply to two beers.

“massive rent increases”

I don’t think you understand. Unlike residential leases where the rent goes up annually, commercial leases are very long: typically 10, 15 or even 20 years. During that period the rent is fixed. So at renewal the rent has to go up a lot, to cover many years’ worth of inflation.

Any business knows that, or should do. So to act shocked and demand a bailout when it is entirely predictable, is a tad naive.

In reply to two beers.

Add repeat burglaries. Insurance companies (are forced to) drop a shop’s policy leading to its closure.

“Since the pandemic, rent has doubled”

This is the REAL “doom loop.” We are still experiencing historic residential and commercial vacancy rates, but one small business after another is getting hammered by greedy landlords with massive rent increases, despite the collapse in demand. “Simple supply & demand.” lol, AYFKM? Many cherished longtime businesses have closed, only to leave empty storefronts in their wake that quickly become neighborhood blight. The only answer our political class has is to expand the powers of the police to trample the Constitution. When are greedy landlords — the actual source of the “doom loop” — going to be held accountable?