Seahorse Seafood Restaurant is floundering in the midst of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions, according to its owner Ulysses Dean, who is unsure he will be able to reopen after drowning in months of bills while enduring months without income.
Dean said he started Seahorse Seafood with his own capital and invested heavily in equipment to get his dream started.
Now, he blames the competent authority’s lockdown measures for the loss of his business.
“Lockdown is the cause of my downfall,” Dean said. “Even though the lockdowns continued, the bills didn’t pause themselves. My rent is $3,500 a month. My light bill is $1,200 to $1,500 a month. My gas bill is $2,400 every month.
“The bills kept on coming in but there was no business. I’m unable to reopen as of now.”
Dean said he reached out to agencies for funding assistance but has yet to hear from any of them.
“I have gotten no response from them and no assistance from them. I’ve seen where they have been on your show talking about how they assist small businesses, but they didn’t assist me,” he said.
Dean’s landlords have been lenient for the moment, he said, but he contended that they can only be “understanding” for so long.
“They have a business; the objective of every business is to make a profit. They can’t make a profit if persons like myself can’t afford to pay the rent. I’m still there, but the question is how long am I gonna be there?”
Dean said he feels like a forgotten citizen amidst the COVID-19 crisis and contends that his business would have been thriving if not for the pandemic.
According to Dean, hope remains but his reality is that every day there is an addition to the mounting bills.
“The bills get bigger,” said Dean.
“In order to open, I’d have to come up with more money. I can’t seem to get help from anywhere.”
He said he thinks the pandemic response could have been better thought out to protect small businesses.
“Imagine not being open and still paying rent. Imagine not being open and still paying the light bill. Imagine not being open and still paying the phone bill and internet bill.
“There is no revenue coming in, but there is much going out. How can one sustain that? That’s unsustainable.”
The post Seahorse Seafood Restaurant struggling amid COVID-19 appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/seahorse-seafood-restaurant-struggling-amid-covid-19/
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