WINTER PARK, Fla. — Winter Park city commissioners unanimously passed a motion Wednesday to purchase a $4 million, 1-acre property at 929-957 West Fairbanks Avenue with a 75-day due diligence period.

City leaders hope this will help with their plans to relieve traffic congestion at the intersection of Fairbanks Avenue and Denning Drive.

The city plans to expand Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, which sits north of Fairbanks Avenue, and said the purchase of the property could allow for the expansion of Lake Rose “both as an amenity to the park and for stormwater improvements.”

Despite the city’s plans, not everyone is on board with the purchase of the retail property.

While certain business owners, like Michael Collantes of the restaurant Soseki, understand the benefits of this property purchase for the city, there is a looming feeling of uncertainty and sadness that local business owners could lose everything they’ve invested their life savings in.

What You Need To Know

  • City of Winter Park unanimously passes a motion to move forward with the purchase of a roughly 1-acre site along Fairbanks Avenue

  • The cost of the property located at 929-957 W. Fairbanks Avenue was $4 million

  • The project would allow the city to construct a left-turn lane in both directions of Fairbanks Avenue to alleviate traffic

  • City officials also plan to expand MLK Jr. Park to beautify the park and for the purpose of stormwater improvements  

Soseki Omakase is one of four businesses on the property that the city purchased. Like many on the strip, it’s a place that Collantes says he poured his life savings into during the pandemic.

“This is truly home for us. We really built everything. Soseki meaning foundation, cornerstone — we want to honor that and stay here in Winter Park,” he said.

The restauranteur said the city’s decision to purchase the land on which his restaurant and sake bar, Bar Kada, sit is unsettling.

But he remains optimistic that he can work out a deal with the city in the long haul.

“After our lease is up here, if there’s a way for us to continue to keep that or potentially move somewhere, we would hate to lose our home here in Winter Park,” Collantes said.

The city said it will honor the leases of the businesses on the property until the end of their terms.

City manager Randy Knight said, “they’re various terms, some of them end in a year from now and some of them into the 2030s.”

But despite that promise from the city, the co-owner of Austin’s Coffee & Film, Jackie Moore and business neighbor of Soseki, said it’s unrealistic for businesses to rely on short-term leases.

“In the restaurant industry, if you don’t have your location for a long period, then you’re kind of dead in the water,” Moore said.

Austin Coffee & Film has been a Winter Park staple for more than 20 years and the owners say the community is going to take a hit. 

Co-owner Stephen Moore said, “a lot of creatives and families came out of here. And it’d just be a shame because it’s a really important space, especially in Florida but in the city of Winter Park.”

Along with proposed stormwater improvements, Knight said the construction of a left-turn lane in both directions on Fairbanks will help alleviate traffic at the intersection on Fairbanks Avenue and Denning Drive.

“Winter Park is built out and land locked, but the communities around us are growing every day and that’s a pinch point in Winter Park as you drive through, when you get to that intersection,” Knight said.

The city asked the sellers of the property to extend the inspection period or the due diligence period, from 60 days to 75 days, to give city staff extra time because of the holiday period.

The earliest that construction could start on the state road is in 2 to 3 years, even though the project isn’t in the state’s five-year plan for the time being.