“Unless some of the older ones who we’re in cahoots with Steven knew about it, because Steven might have said something to other people, I don’t know. She also says that the closing of Stonewall came as a surprise to most of the employees as well. Pradera added she has not spoken with Batis since that morning phone call. “But now I’m being blamed because I’m the face of it and I’m there every day.” “Dori told me it was because she didn’t sign the paperwork on time,” Pradera says. the morning the bar was closed telling her Watkins was pulling out of the deal and would find someone else to buy it. Pradera says she got a call from Batis at 9 a.m. We did pressure washing, we painted, the windows, the crane, the pool was going to get fixed. I had people there on their own time because of what was going to happen on New Year’s. “That place is immaculate,” Pradera argues. So I shut it down and told them unless they come up with the money and pay the people what you owe them then I’m keeping it shut down,” Watkins says.
“People were reaching out to me saying the place looked worse than they had ever seen and that they had not been paying the employees. Watkins says that Stonewall was closed two days before he went in and shut the business down. 13-18 at a minimum but that Pradera got pushback from the employees because an event had already been scheduled in the week.īatis says she contracted COVID so was not at Stonewall during that period but thought that they were going to be closed. Batis later stated that Stonewall was supposed to close down from Dec. Pradera disputes that claim as well saying Watkins knew she was planning to stay open during the weeks in December leading up to New Year’s. There weren’t supposed to be any payments going out, they were just supposed to be getting ready,” he says. “They were supposed to have everything done by the 29th of December so they could open on New Year’s Eve but instead they kept it open when they were supposed to have it closed down and were running it upside down. 13 with the understanding that the new ownership would close to get ready to reopen in time for New Year’s Eve. Watkins stated that financial responsibility was taken over on Dec. “I was there 10, 12 hours a day, up there every single day for the past eight weeks.” “I cannot run a successful business without having access to Stonewall’s bank account, to have checks to be able to provide for our people,” Pradera says. Pradera disputes that claim, stating that when she was brought onboard by Batis to manage Stonewall she was not given access to any of the business’ banking information to be able to pay employees and that much of what she spent was out of her own pocket. “She was running up bills on my end that I didn’t even know about until a couple of weeks after she had done it.” “Maria I believe told everybody that she had bought the building and everything but it wasn’t closed on,” Watkins says. In an interview with Watermark, Pradera, who denies she was financially responsible at any point, identified the other individual involved as Dori Batis. Watkins only identified Maria Pradera as one of the parties who were financially responsible.
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It was bleeding money and I had to stop the bleeding it was just ridiculous.”Īccording to Watkins, the new operators had taken full financial responsibility but did not come up with the money they were supposed to pay to him. That was the biggest reason that I had to go in and shut it down. “The current operators were in the process of buying the business but missed the deadline and then I found out they haven’t been paying their people. “It’s no secret that I have been trying to sell for some time now,” Watkins says. Steven Watkins, who owns Stonewall Orlando but has been away from the day-to-day operations of the business for nearly three years now, says the shutdown happened because the bar’s current operators did not come up with the money to purchase Stonewall by Dec. 31 a notice that read “due to unforeseen circumstances Stonewall Bar is temporarily closed.” (The post has since been taken down but the bar remains closed.) ORLANDO | Stonewall Bar posted to its Facebook page Dec. This story has been updated to include comment from Maria Pradera and Dori Batis. Stonewall hosts Come Out With Pride’s Block Party in 2018.