The Punta Gorda, Fla., City Council recently approved annexations that will bring Nino’s Bakery & Restaurant and Punta Gorda Self Storage within the city limits. Both businesses filed annexation paperwork to benefit from municipal services like fire, police, sanitation and utilities, but had to wait months for their applications to be reviewed due to delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to the source.

“The last thing [we had to wait for] was the public hearing,” said Bobby Cox, co-owner of Punta Gorda Self Storage at 3086 Cooper St. “We’ve been waiting since May. We were getting ready to set a date for this, and then the virus hit, so they shut down the public hearings.”

On top of adding city services, Cox believes the move will have an environmental benefit for the self-storage business. “It’s for the better, [including] for the environment, groundwater and so forth. We are very conscience about that,” Cox told the source. “With the police and fire services response being fast, and public sanitation instead of private like before, we’re excited about it now.”

Cox and his wife, Hope, had been Punta Gorda residents off and on for more than a decade before acquiring the self-storage business. “We’ve been in Punta Gorda 15 years part-time, and now we are full-time,” Cox said. “We bought this place four years ago and are just delighted to be a part of the city.”

Source:
Sun Punta Gorda, Punta Gorda Adds Nino’s Bakery, PG Self Storage to City Limits