Article contributed by Mike Berman, COO, Day & Nite/All Service, with Tia Tassava
James Beard Foundation’s Open For Good Campaign and James Beard’s story could not be more right for these troubled times. Hitting rock bottom in 2020, public trust in US institutions has been declining for years. We not only need an important institution to believe in, guidance and strength in the face of adversity often come from inspiring personal stories. Consider the following:
With COVID-19 now shattering previous highs and a growing number of experts urging the US to shut down again, as a preschooler James Beard survived malaria and he lived through the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic;
The catalyst for growing tides of social unrest may be different, however, James Beard personally felt the sting of injustice by being kicked out of a college eventually awarding him an honorary degree some 50 years later, and;
James Beard experienced young adulthood at the height of the Great Depression; he was a failed actor before hitting his stride as the man Julia Child eventually dubbed “the dean of American culinary.” He knew economic hardship!
Indeed, although James Beard personally lived through the same 3-headed monster problems we are now enduring his life, flawed a human being as we all are, is one we can all draw inspiration from. That inspiration, of course, is a man overcoming adversity to do memorably great things. If James Beard pioneered the US food industry as we know it today, James Beard Foundation’s Open For Good Campaign is here to save it as well as several other industries depending on healthy independent restaurants.
From the depths of $70 billion in commercial real estate transactions in the dark days of 2009 to approximately $500 billion 10 years later, no industry has more profoundly impacted real estate valuations than hospitality. New York’s 28 acre Hudson Yards is perhaps the most vivid, the best example of a city being built within a city around a culture of cuisine. A favorite neighborhood restaurant anchors every viable strip mall in America. And long after the public stopped flocking to mega malls for shopping experiences, Cheesecake Factory and others kept bringing the traffic in. Restaurant and bars put the commerce in commercial real estate’s resurgence over this past decade; a diminished hospitality industry is sure to result in lower valuations.
Every developer, landlord, building management company must maintain and repair HVAC systems and plumbing. These necessary costs of being in business produce no material benefit beyond fee for service. However, thanks to Day & Nite’s philanthropic partnership with James Beard Foundation Open For Good, these same developers, landlords, and management companies will get more than well-maintained high-performing HVAC and plumbing equipment. Donations in their name will go straight to Open For Good to keep independent restaurants vital for rent rolls in operation.
If you aren’t a developer, landlord, or management company, you do business with one as a tenant or patron. Established in last week’s column, we must all come together as a singular community to protect our way of life, environmentally, economically, socially. Who can’t be counted on for this?
Email jbf@wearetheone.com to get your business enrolled in this program!
