WAER is catching up with service businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic to see how they’re coping with the challenging times. In part two, we’re looking at businesses on the SU Hill that are taking a significant hit without thousands of college students around.
Jerry Dellas is the President of the Crouse Marshall Business Improvement District. He says business was strong about two weeks ago, but he closed last week.
“I think when the order came out that the doctors and nurses were not supposed to leave the hospital, that really, kind of put an end to it.”
Della owns the Varsity and Faegan’s. He finally made the decision to close after some of his 50 or so employees expressed concerns that they might become infected through interactions with customers. He’s advised them to apply for unemployment and now fully anticipates other losses.
“We’re going to lose a lot of product that we’re not selling that we’ve had. You know, it’s going to be an upward climb, for sure… for everybody. But, I really think we’re going to get through it, America’s strong that way. We can be down and out, but we’ll get through it.”
Meanwhile, not too far from City Hall in Downtown Syracuse, Dellas’ daughter is having success serving customers at Water Street Bagels.
“She’s got a great system and she’s been doing a lot of business and she’s doing it with minimal employees because, again, some of the employees chose not to come in, but she’s pulling it off.”
We found that some food related businesses are still open on the SU Hill. However, Cafe Kubal CEO Matt Godard tells us it wasn’t worth it to remain open at this time.
