Latest News

• COMMERCIAL RENT DEFERRAL / LEASE BREAK BILL STALLED IN COMMITTEE
• STATEMENT ON SB 939 BEING HELD ON SUSPENSE
• THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT SUPPORTED THE EFFORT
• LONG WAY TO GO – MUST CONTINUE TO PAY ATTENTION
• CBPA 2020 CALENDAR

COMMERCIAL RENT DEFERRAL / LEASE BREAK BILL STALLED IN COMMITTEE

SB 939 (Weiner; D-San Francisco) the bill that would have delayed commercial rent for an indefinite period of time and allowed certain tenants to break their lease with little penalty was held in the Senate Appropriations committee today. The bill raised serious concerns with a wide variety of business groups and public entities as being a well-intentioned measure that would actually make matters worse, create a commercial mortgage foreclosure crisis, and leave tenants and property owners in a worse position than before the COVID-19 shelter in place orders.

STATEMENT ON SB 939 BEING HELD ON SUSPENSE

Here is a statement released to the press on behalf of the coalition that coalesced to oppose this measure:

SB 939 (Weiner) fails to pass Senate Appropriations

Economic ramifications of this bill far too serious to play politics

Sacramento -- Opponents of SB 939 (Wiener), including minority business groups like California Black Chamber of Commerce, California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic 100, and TELACU today were relieved that the bill was held on the suspense file and failed to make it out of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Below is a statement from Rex S. Hime, President and CEO, California Business Properties Association (CBPA) about SB 939:

“Thankfully, legislators made the right choice to keep this bill on suspense. SB 939 is a bad bill. It is far too broad and would have done serious damage to California’s economy. We applaud those who believe policy is more important than politics in addressing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The negative impacts of SB 939 would have been particularly bad for affordable housing projects that rely on the commercial portion to secure funding, and currently underserved communities where investment capital is already difficult to attract.

“Even though this bill is stalled out for now, we’ll be keeping watch to make sure the language doesn’t find its way back into another bill at some point.” 

Click here to see a list of groups that joined together to push back against this ill-conceived policy measure.

Click here to read the news story.
 

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT SUPPORTED THE EFFORT

This positive defense of our industry against a broadside attack based on false premises took many many people and organizations to make happen. Thank you to everyone that helped analyze the bill, write alternative language, come up with alternat proposals, communicate with allied business groups and take our message directly to Members of the Legislature.

Normally, CBPA does not ask for so much assistance. But it was needed here, and you answered the call.

In addition to the long list of partners on the Coalition letter, this would not have happened without the thousands of companies that took the time to reach out to legislators and explain what our industry is currently doing to help tenants. This would not have happened without our national groups at ICSC, BOMA, NAIOP, AIR CRE, Nareit, and IREM, working with local associations, chapters, and members to make sure they understood the impacts of the bill.

Thank you to the companies that stepped-up to help support the communications effort that allowed us to get the message out to people outside of our industry to explain the problems with the bill.

LONG WAY TO GO – MUST CONTINUE TO PAY ATTENTION

The Legislative session goes for another two months, and the group behind SB 939 won’t give up. They will continue to try to push their language into other bills. So breathe a quick sigh of relief, and then lest get focused again.

There are several bills out there I this area that we must continue to monitor and engage – some cause a lot of concerns, others may present opportunities to work with reasonable legislators to come up with balanced approaches that help all businesses impacted by the COVID-19 recession.

In the latter category, a bill that we have continuously pointed to as one that lays out a workable framework for assisting both tenants and property owners is SB 1410 (Caballero). Is this bill perfect? No. But the author and leadership are engaging in productive conversations and taking concerns into account as they try to draft a balanced solution.

This bill has become a vehicle for consensus and framework of a bill on how to deal with these complicated issues. SB 939 took attention away from serious and thoughtful proposals like this, we now hope to engage in a positive and proactive manner on this measure to address real issues caused by COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders on our tenants.

On the other end of the spectrum is AB 1436 (Chiu) which, similar to SB 939 could deprive residential property owners rent revenue or years, it will overturn contracts, and doesn’t even require any proof of COVID-19 related hardship.

There is a long way to go this session and we will do our best to stay on top of issues and keep you in the loop on what is happening.

CBPA 2020 CALENDAR

NOTE DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC EVENTS ARE BEING ADJUSTED TO TELECONFERENCE OR PENDING SHELTER-IN-PLACE ORDERS BEING LIFTED

Thursday, November 5: CBPA Board Meeting – via Zoom

For more information on any of our events, please contact Melissa Stevens at 916-443-4676 or mstevens@cbpa.com.