To the Editor:

My name is Andrew Pevzner. I am one of the owners of Laced Up, a local sneaker store founded by me and my brother Phillip in 2015. We operate three Laced Up locations in New York State with our team of 25 staff members.

Our stores are in Crossgates Mall in Albany, Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst, and Kings Plaza Mall in Brooklyn. We live locally here in Albany, and all of our stores in the state have been closed since March 16.

We are writing this letter out of frustration, as we have placed our entire business on hold for the past several months at the direction of the state. We were expecting and planning for an opportunity to reopen when the Capital District entered Phase 2 of NY Forward on Wednesday, June 3.

We have now heard that indoor malls are exempt from being able to reopen, and we want to appeal to Governor Andrew Cuomo and local authorities to reconsider.

Our staff is anxious to return to work and some semblance of normalcy, our rents are coming due, and other business expenses continue to accumulate.

We believe that the indoor malls in New York can reopen in a safe and responsible manner, and we ourselves have an internal plan for safe measures for our staff and the public when we can reopen. It is time to allow the state to return to work, so please allow us, and hundreds of other local small businesses, to survive and rebuild.

Andrew Pevzner

President

Laced Up

Crossgates Mall

Guilderland