A New York City business owner said Monday that ever since migrants were placed at a hotel near her café, this has resulted in fewer customers.
Wattle Cafe owner Ana Ivkosic joined "Fox & Friends" to discuss how the migrant crisis has affected her business and the lack of tourists has made the neighborhood feel like a "ghost town."
Ivkosic said small-business owners like herself felt "blindsided" by the decision to place migrants at the "world's largest" Holiday Inn, located by her Manhattan café. She said her business relies on tourists for steady traffic, but now the hotel has become the "world's tallest migrant facility."
"All of a sudden, a lot of the revenue that we were relying upon from the tourists has essentially disappeared," said Ivkosic, adding that business owners did not know this would happen.
Ivkosic questioned if there is a more cost-efficient location to place the migrants as her cafe is located in the Financial District, which she described as the "most sought-out" real estate in New York.
Ivkosic said she reached out to her city councilman Christopher Matt for a solution so businesses and livelihoods are not negatively impacted.
"Ultimately, we would like to make sure that we can work with the council and with the city to see how we can. Pivot and try and address the lack of tourist money that is coming through our local community."
While many New Yorkers are struggling to pay rent in the Big Apple due to skyrocketing prices, the migrants receive free $190-a-night rooms at the four-star Holiday Inn until May 2024, according to court documents.
If the hotel reaches full capacity, it could cost the city $93,500 per day, based on the average room rate, and about $2.8 million in per month to house the illegal migrants in New York City.
The Financial District Holiday Inn went bankrupt in 2020 and was struggling to book rooms for more than $100 per night, but it is now making nearly twice as much from the city by housing the migrants.
Fox News' Aubrie Spady contributed to this report
