The owner of the Punta Gorda Waterfront Hotel & Suites applied for a permit to demolish part of the building.
During a Charlotte County-Punta Gorda Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting Dec. 18, Punta Gorda Mayor Lynne Matthews said the hotel’s owner applied for a permit Nov. 7 to demolish the two-story section, including the now-closed Hurricane Charley’s Sushi, Raw Bar and Grill and the hotel’s pool.
Despite damages from Hurricane Ian, which caused the hotel to close, Hurricane Charley’s made repairs and continued operating until Hurricane Idalia on Aug. 30 caused the roof to fail and the restaurant to flood.
Last summer, Punta Gorda Fire Marshal Jennifer Molnar said she and city Building Official Kathleen Croteau conducted a walkthrough site inspection of the restaurant Aug. 31 and found several damages and code violations, which made it unsafe for the restaurant to reopen.
Dean Stainton, who owns Dean’s South of the Border restaurant on the northbound side of U.S. 41 in Punta Gorda, also owned Hurricane Charley’s.
Hurricane Charley’s catering business and sushi chefs then began to operate out of Dean’s South of the Border after the damaged restaurant was forced to close.
Matthews said the hotel’s representatives have been talking to city officials “for the better part of a year or so, and the owner of the hotel kept coming to the city with basically Band-Aids to fix the building and reopen it, and the city told him he couldn’t do that.”
She said the project to demolish has been approved and is on a timeline, but Matthews didn’t recall the exact number of days in which the building will have to be torn down.
“The city is still talking to them about the five-story portion of the building that’s also going to have to come down. It is uninhabitable,” she said.
The popular downtown restaurant was named after Hurricane Charley, which slammed Punta Gorda in 2004. The restaurant weathered many storms until Hurricane Idalia hit.
Since it shared an adjoining wall with the two-story section of the Punta Gorda Waterfront Hotel & Suites, it, too, will have to be demolished.
Hurricane Charley’s leased its restaurant space from the hotel’s owner Ron Asmar. There were about 10 more years left on the lease.
The city of Punta Gorda initially sent a Notice of Violation on July 16 to Asmar, whose address is in Southfield, Michigan. The letter was returned July 18 marked undelivered, as the recipient refused it, according to the city’s Code Compliance department.
Punta Gorda City Manager Melissa Reichert said Dec. 19 that Asmar had not yet provided the city with several details ahead of the demolition, including a detailed site plan, which shows how the construction area and Harborwalk will be secured; and whether Harborwalk has to be closed and if so, how ADA access to Harborwalk will be provided by the hotel’s owner.
Harborwalk is a 2.4-mile recreational trail in Punta Gorda which runs along Charlotte Harbor and the Peace River.
There was no quorum Dec. 13 when the Code Enforcement board met. Tt next meeting will be Jan. 24 when the hotel will be on the agenda.
Reichert said the owner has not yet applied for a second demolition permit for the five-story portion of the hotel.
