East Lansing Pizza Shop Received Help Paying Rent

The restaurant business has been struggling since the beginning of the pandemic. In December, some restaurants even considered closing their doors until things returned to normal. Other restaurants even feared they'd be out of business in the next six months, if they did not receive additional relief packages from the government.

A local pizza shop was worried they would have to close their 26 year-old business until they received help from the East Lansing Building Authority. Owner of Georgio's Pizza, Taso Alimonos says business has been pretty good living near Michigan State's campus, but because of the pandemic, it's been hard to afford rent.

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Back in July, the Building Authority approved a rent forbearance until the month of December, which reduced the restaurant's rent from $2,200 to $1,640. The forbearance also created a payment plan for Alimonos to pay the overdue rent.

In December, Alimonos feared he would have to close because the cost to rent the space was too high. The Building Authority drafted a new agreement that allows the business to operate on a month to month lease and pay $1,500 a month.

Community and Economic Developer Adam Cummins, says they've been trying their best to work with businesses and that revenue loss is out of Georgio's control.

“A lot of these revenue losses are outside of their control. Indoor dining has been closed, then opened, then closed, capacity limitations, MSU canceling a lot of their in-person classes in the fall. All of these decisions have significant impacts on revenue.”

Alimonos hopes that his business will be able to make it until MSU students return for the fall semester.