![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Hut-300x273.jpg\" "\\"Hut\\"")
After four and half years and\u00a0a revolving-door of chefs and employees, owner Tommy Lee Cook has given up on The Hut.<\/p>\nAfter four and half years and\u00a0a revolving-door of chefs and employees, owner Tommy Lee Cook has given up on The Hut.<\/p>\n
“I’m planning to sell it,” Cook said. “I really want to find a right buyer for it.”<\/p>\n
The Hut property is\u00a0at 5150 Buckingham Road in\u00a0east Lee County,\u00a0served its last customers\u00a0in early June. At first, Cook planned to\u00a0take a summer break and reopen in the fall.<\/p>\n
But as weeks passed, and Cook realized it was time to let go.<\/p>\n
Cook bought The Hut\u00a0in late 2011, embarking on an ambitious renovation project that resurrected this dilapidated, 8,200-square-foot building and its almost 4\u00a0acres of\u00a0historic surrounding\u00a0gardens. Cook and his crews built new boardwalks and decks, refurbished the pond and\u00a0waterfall, and hired a local artist\u00a0to create murals of Florida wildlife\u00a0for the main dining room’s walls.<\/p>\n
At The Hut’s peak, Cook had 40 employees and 250 seats.<\/p>\n
The Hut’s history dates back to\u00a0Thomas Edison’s day when German\u00a0mariner Edwin Peace built the home. As legend goes, Peace created a series of tropical gardens around the then-20-plus-acre property\u00a0in an attempt to\u00a0please his Tahitian bride.<\/p>\n
Currently the asking price is $2.3 million. “It’s a very\u00a0unique rural property in close proximity\u00a0to a lot of demographics,” said Gary Tasman, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield Commercial Property\u00a0Southwest Florida, and\u00a0listing agent for the\u00a0sale.<\/p>\n
Peace’s home became a restaurant in 1973. It had its ups and downs, going from neighborhood hot spot to dive bar, closing and reopening and closing again. The building sat empty for two years before Cook came along, purchasing the property for $660,000 in November 2011 according to Lee County records.<\/p>\n
Cook still sees potential in The Hut. “I think the right person can come in and do the right thing with it, weddings and parties and events. The right person can do really well here,” Cook said.\u00a0“It\u2019s just not me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After four and half years and\u00a0a revolving-door of chefs and employees, owner Tommy Lee Cook has given up on The Hut. “I’m planning to sell it,” Cook said. “I really… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":40843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40842"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}