Gainesville restaurateur says he can work out troubles and open a new location

The owner of two popular and apparently thriving local restaurants has defaulted on loans totaling nearly $1 million and is facing other claims from creditors even as he proceeds with plans to open a new restaurant in Celebration Pointe.

Omar Oselimo, owner of Reggae Shack Cafe and Southern Charm Kitchen, insists his restaurants are doing just fine and he can work out his debts without shutting down, but court filings show he faces several challenges, largely stemming from the failure of another of his ventures, Twisted Peacock, a shuttered Indian-themed restaurant on Southwest 13th Street.

Meanwhile, work proceeds on a second Reggae Shack in Celebration Pointe, an upscale retail, office and housing development off Archer Road near Interstate 75.

Oselimo has been named, alongside his businesses Reggae Shack Cafe Inc. and the Twisted Peacock LLC, as defendants in lawsuits by Fidelity Bank and U.S. Bank National Association after he defaulted on at least two Small Business Administration loans, according to court filings.

Additionally, he has defaulted on a state-funded Black Business Loan and is facing a lawsuit from a local contractor.

State, court and city documents show:

• Oselimo has defaulted on his $665,000 SBA loan from Fidelity Bank after he has failed to make any monthly payments on the loan since March.

The loan was initially issued for $462,000 to help purchase a $329,200 deed for Twisted Peacock. Oselimo used Reggae Shack’s equipment as collateral to increase the loan's value to $665,000 in 2015.

Fidelity is now demanding payment on the full amount of the loan. Fidelity claims it owns rights to Reggae Shack’s store equipment, but has not assessed its value.

• Oselimo also owes more than $144,275 on a SBA loan from U.S. Bank National Association, in association with Velocity Commercial Capital. It appears the loan was meant to purchase a warehouse in the Hugh Edwards Industrial Park on Northeast Waldo Road. A foreclosure complaint filed in June shows the loan was originally granted for $129,500, but interest rates and penalties have increased the amount owed. Oselimo, according to the complaint, hadn’t paid a monthly payment on the loan since November.

• Oselimo is in default on a loan from the Florida Black Business Support Corp., which had once had a multi-million dollar, taxpayer-funded contract with the state to help run a Florida loan program for black-owned businesses. It has since dissolved after the state found it had shady lending practices, according to an article from Politico.

Florida Department of Equal Opportunity documents show that Oselimo has paid just $15,000 of the $200,000 loan and has since failed to pay anymore down on the principal.

In February, the loan’s balance was sent by the Department of Equal Opportunity to a collections agency. At that time, there had been no payment activity, according to Kechia Dean of the DEO.

• Oselimo also owes a combined $64,717 to Charles Perry Partners Inc., or CPPI, according to a civil lawsuit filed against Oselimo, Twisted Peacock and Reggae Shack. CPPI claims in a court document that Oselimo has paid more than $150,000 for work completed from 2014 to 2015 on Twisted Peacock and Reggae Shack but still owes about $45,000 on one labor contract and $20,000 on another.

• Oselimo failed to make monthly rent payments agreed to in a lease agreement between his restaurant, Southern Charm Kitchen and the city of Gainesville, from January to July, according to city finance director Christopher Quinn. The Community Redevelopment Agency owns the Southern Charm property.

Oselimo's lack of payments have resulted in combined past-due payments of $16,551.20, Quinn said.

He said Oselimo’s “grace period” to pay the past-due amount and next month's rent ended Monday.

On Tuesday, Quinn said the city had recieved a payment and discussed that Oselimo must pay Southern Charm's regular monthly rent plus $1,000 towards the past due amount. After the payment, he now owes $15,551.20 in back rent.

"In the event that any lease can't be collected, the file is forwarded to the City Attorney for final disposition," Quinn wrote in an email.

Not in default is a $1.4 million lease agreement between Reggae Shack Cafe Inc. and Celebration Pointe Holdings LLC, which Oselimo appears to have signed with his wife, Arpita, before she filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in May.

Oselimo's wife, filing bankruptcy alone, listed more than $4 million in debt in bankruptcy documents, which included the Celebration Pointe lifetime lease agreement, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit card and loan debt.

Oselimo told The Sun the pending lawsuits and loan defaults showed up in court documents as "official," but he is working behind the scenes to get payments restructured.

He said business is doing just fine at Southern Charm and Reggae Shack — he just needs to get caught up.

"The banks have to follow protocol. They're going on the defensive. It's all about going through the motions," Oselimo said. "They don't know that I'm committed to paying off the debt because of my wife's bankruptcy. It frees her from every obligation and now I am solely responsible.

"They are forcing me to take action," he said.

Fidelity Bank attorney Jason Rosenthal, of Orlando-based Rosenthal Law Firm, filed a motion for default against Oselimo, Reggae Shack and Twisted Peacock on Aug. 31.

In response, Oselimo is demanding a jury trial and has "neither denied or accepted" 50 of the 54 allegations, according to court documents. The claims accepted by Oselimo dealt with his residency, property ownership and location.

Rosenthal declined to comment on the case.

"There's nothing I can add to your story," Rosenthal said. "They don't want lawyers commenting on existing cases."

Oselimo also denied claims against him and demanded a jury trial in his U.S. Bank/Velocity Trust foreclosure case.

U.S. Bank attorney Paul Giordano, of Roetzel Andress law firm, said his client plans on foreclosing on Oselimo's warehouse property unless Oselimo is able to reinstate the loan or pay them off with a loan from another bank.

Giordano said Oselimo has been in contact with the law firm.

"We've told him he has to pay a certain amount of money to reinstate the loan," Giordano said, adding he had until Aug. 31 to make the payment. "It hasn't come in yet but I don't think we'd be opposed to extending (the deadline) if he remains in contact with us."

"I have a friend who is a contractor up there that (Oselimo) owes money to," he said. "(The contractor) says, 'Omar is a good guy. He’s been active in the community,' but it’s kind of a tricky business."

The lawsuit filed by contractor CPPI against Oselimo for more than $60,000 is in the "early stages," according to the attorney Sean Hipworth, who is representing CPPI.

Hipworth said he believed Oselimo's other legal matters could complicate the CPPI's lawsuit.

Next door to where Oselimo intends to open his new Reggae Shack, a Rascal Flatts restaurant was supposed to open. All references to Rascal Flatts have since been painted over in black after a Gainesville Sun article revealed contractors had been revoking permits from the project and the project's future was in limbo. It was scheduled to open this summer.

Celebration Pointe spokesman Phillip Bergman said Reggae Shack is moving forward as planned, and is scheduled to open sometime this fall.

John Sixby of Joyner Construction, the project's contractor, declined to comment when asked whether there had been a delay in construction or lack of payments to the contractor.

“It’s not really my place to say anything or comment about that,” Sixby said.

Oselimo could not be reached for further comment after Aug. 30.