Downtown Orlando convenience store closes two days after opening over permitting issues

ORLANDO, Fla. — The sun set on a long-anticipated coffee shop and convenience store near Lake Eola and Thornton Park when it permanently closed after just two days of soft opening because it never applied for the proper permits, city leaders said.

The Sunset Bodega, located at a former office at 300 S. Eola Drive, has been under construction for most of the past two years.

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It heralded its soft opening on Wednesday, promising free cups of coffee to its Instagram followers.

Friday afternoon, the owner posted a photo of a broken heart and announced the bodega was permanently closed.

“The city staff has made it impossible for us to be successful,” the owner wrote. “These people do not care about what’s best for us or our neighborhood, they only care about their agendas. Get ready for a lot of dust as the big buildings and developers continue to get their way with these same individuals.”

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However, Commissioner Patty Sheehan said the owner never filed a change of use for the property from the previous office designation, nor did they file any permits with city staff.

Sheehan called the work done to the property “beautiful” and said the city was interested in having Sunset Bodega operate from the building after it followed the proper procedures. She said staff was willing to work with the owner to make that happen.

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Staff members followed up with an email, saying staff previously met with the owner to walk them through the process of opening a new small business.

“When code was informed of a potential violation at the property because of unpermitted work, it was discovered upon inspection that was the case and the process the City had outlined was not followed,” Public Information Officer Ashley Papagni wrote. “This action requires new building permits in order to operate under the proper code, including the fire code. Some of these changes included unpermitted construction to windows, doors, walkways, an ADA ramp and pavers.”

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WFTV spoke with the property’s owner, Dennis Abbate, Friday night. He said his daughter, who was the owner of the business, met multiple times with city staff members in the planning department and the mayor’s office and received four different licenses to operate.

He said staff never mentioned a change of use permit to her in advance. He believed one wasn’t necessary because the bodega only took up a small portion of the building, which he said the property was zoned for, and the previous uses would remained in the other portions. He also called the construction done to the property “minor.”

“We never heard that [change of use] term until today,” Abbate said. “They have now completely embarrassed us.”

Abbate said city staff were using “bully tactics” and vowed to keep the bodega closed until the department overhauled its policies.

“They’ve never done it right,” he said. “This [city] shouldn’t run like this.”

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