Ocala City Council Denies Alcohol Permit for Location on Silver Springs Boulevard

OCALA, FL (352today.com) – The Ocala City Council voted unanimously 5-0 to deny a business an alcoholic beverage location permit, precluding the opening of a liquor store in West Ocala, at their meeting on Nov. 18, 2025.

The permit request was for the sale of beer, wine and liquor for off-premises consumption for Virwa Inc., doing business as Spot on Liquor.

The applicant Spot on Liquor was requesting a new alcoholic beverage location permit to sell beer, wine and liquor for off-premises consumption at 1500 West Silver Springs Blvd. Unit 1. Spot On Liquor was proposing a 1,700 square foot liquor store with no seats, four employees, and utilizing 12 of the existing parking spaces on-site. There are two churches in a 500-foot radius, Intimacy House of Prayer and Glorious Hope Primitive Baptist Church. There’s one alcoholic beverage establishment within a 500-foot radius, which is Kings Food Mart Convenience Store. Kings has a 2PS license and sells only beer and wine for off-premises consumption, said Endira Madraveren, City of Ocala growth management chief planning official.

City of Ocala staff received feedback and approval from planning, Ocala Fire and Rescue and the Ocala Police Department. The Ocala Police Department was able to provide staff with the calls of service list that includes 105 calls for the entire plaza and the entire block of 1500 West Silver Springs Blvd. within the last two years. They stated the majority of these calls were self-initiated security calls. An in-house criminal history investigation was conducted for the two applicants; no arrests or DUIs were found on either of those two individuals.

Staff did recommend approval but found it necessary to inform council that a similar alcoholic beverage license permit was denied by council on June 1, 2021.

Minutes from that meeting indicate that there were a number of citizens who spoke out in opposition of this permit, and it was ultimately denied with a vote of 0-5.

Another liquor store isn’t welcome

City of Ocala President Pro-Tem Ire Bethea Sr., in whose district the liquor store would have done business, voted to deny the permit, noting that since 1997 great efforts have been made to revitalize the community, and another liquor store would be a blemish on the area. Safety is also a concern.

“It’s in a very active neighborhood,” said Bethea. “We have schools, we have churches, we have public recreation. we have the historic district within a couple of blocks of [the proposed location for the store]. We have a lot of things that could go wrong. We don’t want to take the chance of that happening. I hope the rest of the council understands what the community is saying. They don’t want another liquor store in the immediate community. There’s a liquor store on 200, there’s a liquor store on 10th Street, there’s one on 14th Street, and most of those liquor stores are close to our neighborhood. We just don’t need any more.”

A bad idea 

A number of people spoke in opposition and made compelling arguments as to why the license shouldn’t be granted, and how it would be a detriment to the neighborhood.

“I’m here asking the city council to again, deny the request for the liquor store at the plaza that’s been indicated,” said Dr. Barbara Brooks. “We still have the same situation. This liquor store would be directly across the street from the College of Central Florida, Hampton Center, down the street from Hampton Pool, E.D. Croskey Center and within walking distance to Madison Street of the Magnet School… We just think it’s a bad idea. Not only are churches there, but right next to the plaza are houses and behind the plaza are houses.”

There have been many people in the community for decades who’ve been working diligently to uplift, redevelop it, revitalize it, and granting the liquor store license wouldn’t be conducive with what members of the community have been working toward, said Brooks.

Shatara Taylor is a former City of Ocala employee and a former recreation leader at E.D. Croskey Gymnasium who finds the idea of a liquor store the area of West Ocala unsettling and strongly objected to the granting of a license.

“If you’re going to propose something in that neighborhood, put our West Ocala Resource Center back, put things of that nature in our neighborhood that we can utilize,” said Taylor. “A liquor store isn’t going to be beneficial to me or anybody else on the west side of Ocala.”

When he was growing up, Anthony Oates, used to sneak off and get cigarettes in a store in the same neighborhood, and echoed the sentiments of those who spoke before him, opposing the idea of granting the license.

“As it is, you have young people standing at the gas station saying can you get me a pack of cigarettes,” said Oates. “I wouldn’t put a liquor store there because at the end of the day, it could be my kids, I have a little girl, ya’ll have kids, anybody’s kids can go to a store and say, ‘Hey, can you get me a bottle of liquor.’ All your kids have to say is, ‘I’ll give you some money, you can get me this, you can get me that. It’s going to happen. And then guess what, me as a father, you guys as a parent, you have to go see your kids in jail. I will say this as a 35-year-old young man, I wouldn’t do it. Not just based off of where it’s at, just as a kid who’s been out there doing things behind my parents back, I wouldn’t do it in that neighborhood.”

The applicant made the argument that they’re business owners, who’ve acted responsibly, have provided jobs within the community, and are looked on favorably by those in the community.