Butterfly Estates butterfly house suddenly closes after new owners buy Fort Myers property
The butterflies have been evicted from The Butterfly Estates. The long-running Fort Myers tourist attraction closed its doors for good Friday.
Employees and volunteers hugged each other, cried and said their goodbyes Friday morning in the butterfly house entryway.
“It’s breaking our hearts,” said butterfly house curator Sherri Williams, tears in her eyes. “We all love this place.”
The abrupt closing came about a week after a group of Florida investors bought The Shops at The Butterfly Estates property for almost $1 million. Williams said they were notified Thursday that they had just one day to close the nonprofit butterfly house on Fowler Street, also known as The Florida Native Butterfly Society Conservatory.
The property includes the butterfly house/conservatory ― home to the nonprofit Florida Native Butterfly Society and about 400 butterflies ― plus DAAS CO-OP Art Gallery & Gifts, Thrifty Garden garden center and the restaurant/coffee shop bullig.
All the other businesses remain open for now, although Thrifty Garden has already announced it will close Aug. 27.
Thrifty Garden owner Rick Molek said the closing is partly due to economic setbacks from the pandemic and Hurricane Ian, and partly due to the new owners and uncertainty about his future at The Butterfly Estates. He doubts his “quirky little garden shop” will have a place anymore at The Shops at The Butterfly Estates, and he’s hoping to find a new location eventually.
“We were not evicted or anything,” Molek said. “In fact, I have yet to even be contacted by the new owners.
“It was more about wanting to decide instead of the decision being made for us, I guess. It was kind of seeing the writing on the wall.”
‘The whole thing’s become a mess’
Devon Benjamin ― one of the partners that bought the property with a group of Florida investors ― says he never actually intended for The Butterfly Estates butterfly house to shut its doors.
He called Friday’s closing “a shame.”
Benjamin says he offered the former owner, Rob Johnson, the opportunity to keep the place open, rent free, until he and his investors figured out what to do with the property. But Johnson and his business partner declined, he said, and gave them just a few days to take over running the butterfly house.
Benjamin said there’s no way he and his investors could have taken over a business in such a short timeframe ― a matter of a few days ― even if they’d wanted. Plus they’re not set up to run a business, pay employees and take on insurance and other liabilities, he added.
“The whole thing’s become a mess,” Benjamin said. “You know, look, I know I’m the bad guy to them and I get it. I feel horrible. …
“It was just a comedy of not getting things done quick enough for the business side. It’s a shame.”
Johnson didn’t return a voicemail message left Friday morning seeking comment.
What’s next for the butterflies at The Butterfly Estates?
Williams of The Butterfly Estates butterfly house said there are no plans to move the butterfly house or the nonprofit that operated there to a new location.
“There’s really no place to go,” Williams said. “The old owner, he’s probably going to let the nonprofit go. We are a not-for-profit, the Florida Native Butterfly Society. He’s probably going to let that go.”
The Butterfly Estates has been a downtown fixture since it opened in 2009 with the conservatory and a renovated trio of early 20th century houses. The tourist attraction worked hand-in-hand with the Florida Native Butterfly Society, a nonprofit with more than 4,000 members.
Hundreds of people visit The Butterfly Estates every week, former owner Johnson told The News-Press in 2017.
The Estates had a butterfly breeding program to collect butterfly eggs from the conservatory, nurture the resulting caterpillars and then ― once those cocooned and emerged as butterflies ― release the butterflies into the wild. The idea was to help replenish Florida’s butterfly population.
The butterfly house may not be open to the public anymore, Williams said, but she and other volunteers and part-time employees will continue the mission of the nonprofit ― even if they have to do it entirely on their own.
That starts with releasing the Estates’ approximately 400 butterflies into the wild and “rehoming” the caterpillars at their own homes. Williams said Benjamin has allowed them to stay there an extra week or two to remove everything, including artwork, the butterflies and other creatures such as koi and turtles. Benjamin said he’s told them they can stay longer, if necessary.
“We’re going to get our plants and our butterflies out of here,” Williams said. “We’re going to collect all the butterflies from the inside. … We’re going to collect them all with a net, and we’re going to take them and release them out into nature.
“We’re not going to let anything happen to them.”
The nonprofit’s mission will continue, she says, with volunteers raising caterpillars at home and releasing the butterflies into the wild.
They’ll also be moving the Estates’ butterfly-attracting plants to a 10.5-acre piece of property in Punta Gorda owned by one of their volunteers, Kim Roy.
“It might not be open to the public,” Williams said, “but we’re gonna still raise butterflies.”
Restaurants and more: What might be coming to The Butterfly Estates
Benjamin said he and his investors ― a group that operates under the name 7091 Pinnacle LLC in Coral Springs ― bought the property about a week ago for roughly $975,000. He said their intention was to keep the various businesses running until they figured out what to do with the property.
He would’ve let the butterfly society stay there indefinitely, he added, but the former owner insisted they take over the business in just three or four days. That's something he and his investors weren't willing to do.
He called the purchase strictly a real-estate venture. They never intended to run a business or nonprofit and only want to rent out the buildings at The Shops at The Butterfly Estates, instead.
“I’ve got investors,” Benjamin said. “They’re like, there’s no way we’re doing a business out of this. It’s very risky.
“There’s general liability issues. Is it even ADA compliant? We’ve had these issues in the past. And what about workman’s comp? This is stuff we don’t normally do. We’re not a day-to-day business.”
Benjamin said he never spoke with the former owner until he closed on the property about a week ago. He only spoke to a real-estate agent.
David Acevedo, co-owner of Butterfly Estates art gallery DAAS CO-OP, calls the closing of the butterfly house “unfortunate.”
“It’s a shocker…” Acevedo said. “It’s really sad.”
Now he’s worried about what happens next for his gallery and the 30-something artists who show their work there at The Shops at The Butterfly Estates. He’s worried the rent will be raised to “an impossible amount.” And he’s already concerned about the decreased foot traffic now that the butterfly house has closed.
The owners of bullig didn’t respond to a message left at the restaurant seeking comment.
Benjamin said he and his investors have no immediate plans to evict anyone else or do anything new with the property. He envisions the place as a home to restaurants, an art gallery or more, but they’re still trying to determine what they’ll do there.
One things for sure, he said: They don’t plan to tear down the property to make room for something else. They want to keep the same charm.
Benjamin also said they have no immediate plans to increase the rent, he says, but it’s likely.
Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. For news tips or other entertainment-related matters, call him at 239-335-0368 (for tickets to shows, call the venue) or email him at crunnells@gannett.com. You can also connect with him on Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), Twitter (@charlesrunnells), Threads (@crunnells1) and Instagram (@crunnells1).
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Fort Myers' Butterfly Estates butterfly house closes permanently
