A Villages connection is coming to the Gardenia Café in the Fruitland Park Library.
That’s because city commissioners agreed last week to lease the facility to John M. Gibson, president of Fountain Lake Properties LLC. Gibson is a Villages resident who also owns the popular Rose Plantation restaurant in Fruitland Park, located just a stone’s throw from the $3 million library that opened this past July.
Gibson and the city agreed to a lease through Jan. 31, 2021. He has the option to extend the lease in one-year increments as long as he gives notice to do so no later than 120 days prior to the end of the term.
The lease calls for Gibson to provide Library Director Jo-Ann Glendinnig with a monthly sales report from the café and to pay rent in the amount of 10 percent of net sales or $200, whichever is greater. That money has to be paid by the 10th of each month and will go to the Friends of the Fruitland Park Library, a volunteer group that raises money to support educational and cultural programs at the facility.
Fruitland Park has the right to cancel the lease for any reason by giving Gibson a written 30-day notice. Gibson also can terminate the lease with a written 30-day notice if sales are insufficient for him to generate a net profit.
The café will be open Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Library patrons will have a choice of several food and non-alcoholic beverage items available in the 515-square-foot facility, including snacks, coffee, tea and soft drinks. Gibson also will be given the opportunity to provide catering services after normal business hours to groups using the library’s community meeting spaces.
Originally, food was provided at the library café by K&M Creative Catering. But after just five months the city opted out of that agreement, with City Manager Gary La Venia telling commissioners that he’d rather have a local vendor who offers pre-packaged food items that are made off-site and brought to the café each morning, instead of offerings that were cooked in the facility.
In December, the city attempted to sign an agreement with the NY Deli, Diner N’ Bakery but that deal came unraveled during commission meeting when owner Vito Serrone brought up issues about everything from the name of the café to placement of signs advertising its location to plans to occasionally park his firetruck that serves as a rolling billboard for his eatery in the library’s parking lot.
The Rose Plantation is located at 200 Rose Avenue in Fruitland Park. The estate was originally built in 1917 by newspaper publisher William Dwight, of Holyoke, Mass., as a winter retreat. Gibson purchased the property in 2015 and turned it into an upscale boutique restaurant.
