TAMPA, Fla. — When Coronavirus restrictions hit in late March and companies asked employees to work from home, Hemant Patel started to get worried.

Patel owns Gateway Newsstand on the first floor of the Regions Building in downtown Tampa.

With 90% of the building working from home, Patel didn't know if he could afford to continue operating his store, about the size of a big walk-in closet.

That's when an unnamed employee from Yara, a company inside the Regions Building, started sending emails.

She challenged companies to donate $1000 each to Patel to keep him afloat while his business took on significant losses.

"I am blessed to work with the nicest people in the building," Patel said.  "This is more than enough, I don't think I deserve that much money actually."

So how much money is Patel talking about?

$17,000 dollars.  At least that is the running total as of today.

From the first donation from Yara of $2,000, other companies joined in, sending check after check for $1000.

In about one weeks time, Patel had gone from wondering how to keep his business to having more than enough to cover his losses.

"Only thing I can say, I am very fortunate to work with the nicest people in the building and this is my second family.  And I do my best to keep everybody happy at the same time," he said. 

This is not the first time companies inside the Regions Building have banded together to help Patel.  

In 2015, some workers noticed that in 15 years, Patel had never taken a vacation.  

A donation was started which eventually raised $12,000, enough to send Patel, his wife, and kids on a vacation to Europe.