Arkansas commercial landlord tells restaurant tenants: Pay your employees instead of your rent

This is the sort of thing that’s badly needed, and those who can do it . . . well, I’m not going to say they have an obligation to, because everyone has to make their own decisions. But we encourage it as much as possible, because the people who are hurting did nothing to deserve it.

So those who are still doing fine and are in a position to freely make a sacrifice at a time like this are really doing the Lord’s work if they do:

Young Investment Company announced Tuesday night on social media it would “not expect its restaurant tenants to pay April rent.”

The company’s downtown Jonesboro properties house several of the area’s favorite restaurants including Eleanor’s Pizzeria, Roots, Main Street Coffee, The Parsonage, and City Wok. Instead of paying rent, Young urged owners to “pay your employees and take care of your family. We will get through this together.”

Jonesboro, Arkansas is where Young Investment Company owns these properties. That’s five restaurant tenants the company plans to led slide on the rent for who-knows-how long.

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Now you might say, well yeah, Young Investment Company sounds like the kind of outfit that can afford to do something like this. But it’s not as easy for property owners as people think it is. They invest a lot of money up front either building or acquring properties, and they are by no means able to collect rent on every property every month. Upkeep is expensive, vacancies are very expensive and commercial/retail clients are notorious for failing and leaving properties vacant.

Many landlords make good money, and I certainly hope Young Investment Company is one of them. But simply having properties to rent is not an automatic cash cow, and in this case there is no telling how long Young will have to go on without realizing any return on its investment.

Yet the company seems resolute: The restaurants need to pay their employees as top priority. The landlord will take a hit, but its owners clearly believe in looking out for their fellow men and women and doing what’s right.

This is awesome. This company deserves widespread praise, and hopefully more people will follow its lead.

And I just had a thought: I hope the disciples of Ayn Rand, with their hatred of altruism, don’t get much attention during these days. Because a lot of people would have no hope if there weren’t altruistic companies like Young Investment Company who are willing to share. Fortunately, they listen to Jesus rather than certain awful shrews who don’t believe in Him.