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St. Pete Central Ave. businesses reopen after storm-related damages shuttered doors for two weeks

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Published  August 14, 2024 6:38pm EDT
St. Petersburg
FOX 13 News

Downtown St. Pete businesses reopen after storm damage

Kailey Tracy reports

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Businesses on a block of Central Avenue in St. Petersburg are back open after storm-related damage shut their doors for close to two weeks.

According to city officials, the mansard roof at 2541 Central Avenue collapsed into an adjacent parking area, causing the connected canopy in the front of the building to be unstable on the evening of July 25. No one was injured.

"Their [city officials’] concern was that the underlying awning, which is, again, steel and brick, it's not just like, a cloth awning scenario, was, as we all saw, had been ripped away at that corner," Evan Wolf, the co-owner and partner of Sunshine City Popcorn Company, located in the affected area, said. "The concern was all the way down the building, all the way to the VFW, that it was going to be pulling away and make it unsafe, and rightfully so."

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City staff closed the businesses’ entrances and the sidewalk along the street for about two weeks as crews removed the canopy. City officials said it was most likely storm damage, and Wolf and others believe the damage was caused by lightning.

That same night on nearby Beach Drive, lightning struck a Banyon tree and injured four teens who were underneath it. A couple of days before that, the Mari Jean Hotel a block away from Sunshine City Popcorn, was hit by lightning. 

"A lot of crazy lightning has been going on, and I get it, it's summer, but there's been a lot of very interesting occurrences," Wolf said.

Sunshine City Popcorn reopened on Friday. Wolf and the owner of Janet’s Antiques, Janet Howe, a few doors down, said the closure cost them thousands.

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"It made things very difficult, because the core of our business is the retail, the walk-ins of people that are just walking down the street," Wolf said.

Wolf said his shop was still able to do online orders.

"As a local, family-owned business, we just appreciate everyone doing what they could to help us, I'll be honest with you, survive through some very tumultuous times," he said.

City officials said they can’t confirm if there was a lightning strike. The collapse happened overnight, and St. Pete Fire Rescue didn’t have any calls for service to that address before the damage was found in the morning, they said.

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