V&A Waterfront have outdone themselves during lockdown says one of their struggling tenants who has seen businesses flourish under their guidance.
Cape Town, South Africa (27 July 2020) – Dino Paulo from HintHunt at the V&A Waterfront let us in on a secret that is pretty great. As a tenant of the Watershed at the V&A Waterfront, his business is reliant on foot traffic and tourism, both of which are in short supply lately.
Dino is a small business owner in Cape Town with two branches. He explains that dealing with one of his landlords has been less than pleasant while dealing with the other, has been just short of life-saving!
“As an owner of a small business based in Cape Town which offers experiences, we have experienced many of the challenges businesses have faced throughout this pandemic.
Given the nature of our business, we closed operations a week before lockdown began and have remained closed since. As we have 2 locations in Cape Town, we ensured we communicated with our landlords well, in advance, regularly and transparently. While one landlord was less than accomodating with the majority of its tenants, I would prefer to highlight the extent to which the V&A Waterfront has gone to ensure the survival of small businesses.
We are based in the iconic Watershed, where many of the businesses rely on local and foreign tourism for success. Even though the Watershed has remained closed since the beginning of lockdown, the V&A Waterfront has met its tenants with nothing but support.”
Dino explains that they have been offered rental relief as well as other financial options to get through the lockdown. But it is the other aids that have really made a difference during this time.
“This support includes rental relief and assisted finance options – but it’s their next step which shows their willingness to go above and beyond.
The V&A Waterfront set up a series of webinars for its tenants; connecting us to experts and service providers alike to assist us in getting our businesses online, setting up online stores, online marketing, as well as assisting us with import, export and local delivery of goods. Further, they used their brand power to ensure its tenants get preferential rates for these services – which makes solutions far more accessible to us.
These webinars and the support have been invaluable to many as cash is tight and we have been forced to innovate and do more and more ourselves.
Even better, these webinars are available to the public on their V&A Youtube page under the Learning Lunches Playlist so anyone can access and learn from them.”
Dino has found the resources given by the V&A Waterfront to be quite useful and while his own business can make little use of them due to the nature of his business, he hopes sharing them will help others.
“I would recommend that business owners take time to view these as they may assist in many ways.
While some landlords have allocated their resources to legal teams bullying its already battered tenants, V&A Waterfront sets the example of what a landlord should be. They have ensured that many of us (and those that depend on us) have a future post-Covid, and for that, I can’t thank them enough.”