News: Pulse Nightclub Owner Won’t Sell to City

After the horrible events that happened at Pulse, reports came out that its owner, Barbara Poma, had decided to sell the building for $2.25 million to the city of Orlando so it could be turned into a memorial for the 49 lives that were taken back in June 12.

However, the Orlando Sentinel now reports that Poma has backed out of the sale, opting instead to decide on the fate of the building herself.

In a news conference held outside the club, Poma explained her decision to back out of the deal.

“This decision truly came just from my heart and my passion for Pulse, and everything it’s meant to me and my family for the last 12 years since its inception,” she said. “So I think the struggle was you know, letting it go, and it’s just something I could not come to grips with.”

The decision comes after some controversy over the $2.25 million asking price for the property. Two of the city commissioners, Tony Ortiz and Jim Gray, had objected to it, much to the consternation of District 4 Commissioner Patty Sheehan.

For her part, Poma says that the disagreements and the City Council’s public debate over her asking price was not the factor that pushed her towards backing out from the proposed sale of the site.

She tells the Orlando Sentinel: “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion and their feelings but, for me, it wasn’t about the real estate and the appraisal, it was about the emotion, what happened here.”

While Poma still has no concrete plans for the site, part of the money being raised by the non-profit called the onePULSE Foundation will be set aside for a “permanent memorial at the existing site of Pulse Nightclub.”

Poma first opened the bar in 2004 in memory of her brother John, who had AIDS and died in 1991.