Post-virus reopening: Some local businesses move into Phase One, while others anxiously eye Phase Two and beyond

As New York State emerged from a two-and-a-half month shutdown with the reopening of designated Phase One industries, local contractors and businesses wasted no time getting back to work.

“It’s very exciting. We’re looking forward to getting everything back to full capacity,” Riverhead Building Supply controller Tracy Kappenberg said Wednesday.

Though the family-owned building supply company is an essential business under the New York Pause guidelines and remained eligible to operate after the governor issued mandatory shut-down orders in March, “things shut down for us drastically” because all but essential construction was halted.

“We’re already starting to see a lot of contractors coming back to work and request deliveries,” Kappenberg said Wednesday morning. “Our biggest problem is getting out deliveries to all of our customers. We had to bring back employees from furlough,” she said.

“We hope things get back to the way they were, but we also have to be very cautious, to keep our employees and our customers safe,” Kappenberg said. The company is following all state guidelines for face coverings and social distancing.

“We’re a little concerned about a resurgence of the coronavirus and what’s going to happen if that happens,” she said. “For today, we’re happy to be open.”

Dan Chekijian of Twin Fork Beer got right back to work on his brewery’s under-construction Raynor Avenue facility.

“We’ve been anxious to open up since they closed us,” he said. “We can continue construction where we left off in March.”

Chekijian said he thought a lot about his company’s business model during the shutdown and concluded it will have to change — at least for the foreseeable future. Almost 70% of Twin Fork’s business before the shutdown came from restaurants in New York City.

“We’re not sure how much that’s going to reopen,” Chekijian said.

“We’re going o have to restructure our model to be more of a tasing room operation,” he said. “We’ll have to see where the outside distribution takes us.

Twin Fork sells their brews to beverage companies, grocery stores and delis across the region, he said. “Draft sales to the restaurants stopped but retail sales increased,” Chekijian said. “That offset some of the loss.”

Tanger Outlets is slowing coming back to life, as managers of the national brand outlet stores are returning and preparing for a different kind of operation: curbside retail. Customers can shop online or call an outlet store to request an item, then pick it up curbside at the front door. Payments are taken online or over the phone, so the shopping experience is “contactless.”

Tanger stores in Riverhead are now opening and will operate on a reduced schedule, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. But not all stores will be open, an employee in the mall office said.

“This type of operation doesn’t work for some retailers,” she said. Customers are advised to call the store in advance to check availability.

Some big box retailers like Best Buy and Dick’s Sporting Goods are offering curbside pickup for customers who make purchases online. Others, like Ulta Beauty and Home Goods, have not yet opened for business.

The state has a four-phase reopening plan, with at least two weeks between each phase, according to the New York Forward reopening guide published earlier this month. The waiting period is to provide health officials with the opportunity to determine whether expanded economic activity has brought an uptick in the coronavirus rate of transmission, as measured by new infections and hospitalizations.

In addition to construction and curbside retail, Phase One businesses in include non-food agriculture, manufacturing and wholesale trade, fishing, hunting and forestry.

Phase Two businesses are professional services, retail, administrative support, real estate rental and leasing.

In Phase Three are restaurants and food services.

Finally, opening in Phase Four are arts, entertainment, recreation and education.

For the purpose of the reopening process, state officials divided the state into 10 regions. Five upstate regions were given the green light to begin reopening on May 15. Since two weeks have passed, they should be eligible to move to Phase Two.
Yesterday, the governor did not address the matter in his daily briefing. Yesterday evening, local officials in those five regions were told by state officials that they would not be moving into Phase Two just yet, according to the Times-Union — angering local officials in the regions.

Upstate leaders expressed frustration with the overall confusion and lack of communication with state leaders, according to the Times-Union report.

Business leaders, trade groups and some elected officials in Suffolk have expressed the same concerns.

“We have a huge problem,” said Riverhead Chamber of Commerce president Bob Kern, who has been a vocal critic of the management of the shutdown and reopening. He calls the lack of communication “a wall” that seems near impenetrable.

“Try to reach a task force in the state,” Kern said. “From my experience it’s a ghost task force. Supervisors and mayors are all having the same experience,” he said.

Kern and other business group leaders have pushed for changes to restrictions on restaurants and other small businesses, arguing that they are teetering on the edge of oblivion. But they say they have been unable to even provoke a substantive response from the state.

“When leaders don’t listen to reason, you wonder the reason why they’re leaders,” Kern said.