HYDE PARK — After upstairs condo neighbors resisted the idea of another bar restaurant in Hyde Park Village, neither the Tampa City Council nor the International Beer Garten wanted to fight the issue.
Owners Patty Corey and April Cox wrote a letter saying that they had "come to realize we are not a welcomed business for this site." They "would not be opposed or saddened" if their wet zoning application was denied.
City Council members received the letter just before a meeting May 1 and later voted against allowing the beer and wine permit.
But the Beer Garten's battles may not be over. Corey and Cox recently asked the property owner, developer David Wasserman's MW Hyde Park LLC, for their deposit back on the basis of "impossibility of performance" without beer and wine sales, according to Wasserman's attorney, C. Graham Carothers.
They may not get it anytime soon.
The businesswomen defaulted on terms of their lease by giving officials the letter in May that all but told the City Council to deny their request, Carothers said.
If the business owners want out of the lease based on their lack of permitting, "I can only assume it will result in litigation."
Signs reading "Coming Soon: International Beer Garten" still hung last week in the windows of the vacant property off Snow Avenue. The 4,000-square-foot space was to have 72 seats indoors and 20 outside, next to the Color Me Mine ceramics studio and underneath a row of condo units.
"We're not planning on opening there because our petition (for wet zoning) was denied," said Corey from her home in Indiana. "I don't know why the landlord still has the signs up."
Corey wouldn't comment on the future of the Beer Garten or what she and Cox plan to do next. (Cox, who has a Tampa address, couldn't be reached for this article.)
The City Council gave preliminary approval for the Beer Garten's wet zoning on April 17, but council member John Dingfelder raised questions about how patrons sitting outside in the front patio would affect homeowners living above the site.
At the time, Corey and Cox said they had not heard neighbors' complaints. But by the second reading on May 1, at least one condo owner objected to their plans.
City Council member Mary Mulhern worried about future clashes between existing residents and business owners, as Wasserman's redevelopment plans for Hyde Park Village appear to embrace outdoor dining.
"I'm concerned that there's going to be more and more of this," Mulhern said at a meeting this month. "And we need to make sure that these residents, at the very least, know about it."
Emily Nipps can be reached at nipps@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3431.
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