BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — We’re following up on a story that’s been trending on WPTV.com for the past two days. A Boynton Beach store owner getting priced out of paradise with a rent increase of nearly $7,000 a month. Two WPTV viewers saw the story and quickly jumped in to help.
“I didn’t fail, the system failed me,” Ron Katz said.
Katz, the owner of Pet Supplies Plus in Boynton Beach, launched his business in April 2023, signing a lease agreeing to pay all expenses, including real estate taxes, building insurance and maintenance.
Since then, Katz said a new landlord bought the lot and increased those payments from $25,000 a month to more than $32,000 a month.
A cost Katz said will close his business.
“If I failed as a business person, then you know what I deserve it,” he said. “If I ran it bad or didn’t do the right thing, that’s one thing, but this was something completely out of my control.”
To make matters worse, Katz said he used his home as collateral for a loan to open the business.
“I spoke to the bank, and they pretty much told me, if you’re going out of business, then we want our money," he said. "Well, I don’t have $750,000.”
Thousands of people rallied behind Katz on social media after WPTV’s first story.
Two started a GoFundMe to come to Katz's aid.
“I felt sick to my stomach,” Cathy said. “As a small business owner, if someone raised my rent by $7,000, it’s not obtainable. It would put me out of business too.”
“There’s many owners that are feeling this pain that Ron’s going through,” Debbie Veres said. “They’re scared people. Times are tough right now."
I went to the experts to see how common these increases are in Florida’s fragile insurance market.
“If I’m betting, I would say yes it’s a sign of the times,” Chad Massaker, commercial real estate broker, said. “Property insurance has escalated highly since hurricane, I think it’s Idalia, think it was off the west coast last year. It just wiped out a lot of insurance preserves.”
And through all the hardship, Katz said the support keeps rolling in.
“My phone hasn’t stopped from people seeing what was done on WPTV the other night,” he said, “plus my Facebook and it has just taken off.”
To help Katz, click here.
