The city of Winter Park is preparing to buy land next to a key intersection to improve traffic and expand a popular park, but owners of two well-known local businesses are concerned they’ll be told to relocate — a costly endeavor.

The City Commission voted unanimously Nov. 13 to buy the 1-acre parcel on Fairbanks Avenue and Denning Drive for $4 million, pending a 75-day period for inspections before the sale is finalized.

Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said the city has eyed the land for over 25 years to help alleviate traffic congestion and accidents, allow better stormwater retention and enhance Martin Luther King, Jr., Park.

Winter Park would become landlord for the four businesses on the land. This includes the Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant Soseki and Austin’s Coffee shop, as well as nail salon Nail Alchemy.

DeCiccio told the Sentinel she isn’t sure if leases will be renewed once they expire and that the city is looking at “everything” to come to that determination.

The future for the businesses depends in part on how quickly the city can get permits to add the left-turn lanes on Fairbanks, which is a state road and requires approval from the Florida Department of Transportation.

But DeCiccio said the city wants to work with the businesses and doesn’t want to throw them to the wind.

“Whether or not we terminate it, we’ll just have to wait and see how things shake out,” she said

City spokesperson Clarissa Howard said the entire length of the property will be needed to construct the new left turn lane, but the entrances to the businesses may be reoriented toward the back parking lot so they can continue to operate in their current location, at least for a time.

Soseki founder and owner Michael Collantes and Austin’s co-owner Jackie Moore spoke during the meeting to convey their concerns. Collantes expressed his desire to work with the city to find a solution, while Moore was more critical of the purchase and questioned the point of it.

During an interview days later, Collantes stressed how important the Winter Park location is to the restaurant’s identity.

“Our mission has always been to stay local,” he said. “All of our plateware is created by a local potter that we’ve worked with for the past two years.”

“It would be devastating to think that we would have to pick up and move.”

Collantes plans to meet with commissioners this week to discuss the issue further. He said his lease expires “in a few years.”

In addition to Soseki, Collantes owns and operates a new sake lounge, Bar Kada, on the same site and hopes to open a pizza cocktail bar there next year.

“I don’t have another [place] you know. We’ve accumulated the funds through years of diligently working hard,” he said. “The restaurant industry is backbreaking.

“To say the least, I have guys who’ve been with me from the very beginning, who entrusted us with their careers and livelihood. And, yeah, this is home for us.”

Moore is on a tighter timetable since Austin’s lease expires next year. She said that Austin’s and the city have been at odds over the land for years and called the city’s purchase the final nail in the coffin.

“They’re supposed to do what the residents want. That’s not what’s happening with this current commission,” she said.

Moore said as a small business owner who works multiple jobs, she doesn’t have the money to reopen Austin’s if she is forced to move. She believes the city should compensate Austin’s.

“I think it’s an act of goodwill if you’re gonna put a 20-plus-year of business out of business,” Moore said. “It is such an organic thing that just happens, makerspaces, and when it happens, then you should protect it at all costs, because it means that the community has said, ‘This is what we want, and this is what we need, and this is what we see as being the culture of our city’.”