Specialty Fabrics Review December 2020 - 20

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as many people as usual. " The company
ended up setting up more than 20 testing
sites and 30 restaurants.
Other tent rental companies found
work from other sources.
At the beginning of the pandemic, New
York Tent, based in Bohemia, N.Y., made
the decision to ride out the downturn
without laying off any of its 50 employees
" because it's taken us a long time to get to a
really good place with our team, " says CEO
David Tannenbaum.
New York was hit hard and early by
the pandemic. " It got serious here real
quick, " Tannenbaum says. " There were
periods when there was a little work, and
some seasonal staff were furloughed, but

C OLD WEATHER B LUES  

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any tent rental companies spent autumn trying to figure out what
will happen once winter hits and the tents they've erected for
restaurants and other businesses suddenly need heat.
" We're fielding six to eight calls a day for heating tents, mostly from
New York City restaurants, " says Scott Weisberg, co-owner and president
of Staten Island, N.Y.-based Everything Entertainment. " Basically, there's
no good method for heating. "
" We're already seeing some restaurants installing umbrella-type patio
heaters under tents, which is extremely dangerous, " says Brian Richardson,
president of L&A Tent & Event Rentals, Hamilton, N.J. " And it's against code
because it puts an open flame directly under the tent. "
" The only way to properly heat a tent is by closing it in, " says Weisberg.
" And the only way to keep these places 'COVID-free,' supposedly, is to open
them up. So what do you do? "
Propane heating is prohibited in New York City, he explains, and " using
electricity is impossible because of the amount of power that's required. You
can't use kerosene either for tents that are heated for 'comfort.' "
" Heating tents in cold weather areas for four to five months is next to
impossible, " adds Michael Lubas, co-owner of Vermont Tent Co. in Essex
Junction, Vt. " I can put a floor in a tent and babysit it if it snows for maybe
three days, but that's about it. "
" It's going to be a long winter, " says Lubas. " Not just for me, but for
everybody in the industry. "
It doesn't help that Lubas' company moved into a new facility last year,
doubling its space. " Great move, but bad timing, " he says.

we really started brainstorming and it's
been keeping us going. We have a lot of
relationships that help. We just doubled
down. "
The company landed work with
hospitals and the Army Corps of
Engineers, but decided to let restaurant
work go to others. " A lot of what we do the
restaurants couldn't afford, and I didn't
want to cheapen our product by giving it
away, " says Tannenbaum. " So we let that
go to some of the smaller companies while
we focused on large national clients. "
BUSINESS IS BOOMING, BUT ...
Everything Entertainment, an event
production company providing services
to both corporate and private clientele
from its headquarters in Staten Island,
N.Y., has been providing tenting for
restaurants, but it's not like the corporate
clients that have been the company's
main clientele in the past.
" The restaurants are only taking
tents. Nobody is taking walls, flooring or
anything else, " says Scott Weisberg, the
company's president and co-owner. " So
business is booming, but it hasn't been
profitable. "
Deryck Dietz, CEO of Traube Tents
and Structures, St. Louis, Mo., believes his
company's diversity-with extensive work
in government and in the commercial/
industrial sector-has helped it " tread
water " during the pandemic.
In April, the company began marketing
to support hospital settings such as
drive-through COVID-19 testing and
triage facilities. Traube also built canopy
enclosures for the St. Louis city morgue
to increase capacity in preparation for a
possible increase in COVID-19-related
deaths. " It was up for a month and a half
and was not needed, which was fortunate,
but that really hit home on what this is all
about, " says Dietz.
In August, Lubas says his company
received an unexpected rush of business

20 REVIEW DECEMBER 2020

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Specialty Fabrics Review December 2020

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