Pulse nightclub owner Barbara Poma on
Monday backed out of a deal to sell the property to the city of
Orlando.
Poma opened the club in 2004 in memory
of her brother John, who died from AIDS complications in 1991.
“This decision truly came just from
my heart and my passion for Pulse, and everything it's meant to me
and my family for the last 12 years since its inception,” Poma
told reporters, her husband by her side. “So I think the
struggle was, you know, letting it go, and it's just something I
could not come to grips with.”
On June 12, a lone gunman opened fire
in the gay nightclub, killing 49 people and wounding dozens more.
Mayor Buddy Dyer announced last month
that the city had agreed to buy the property for $2.25 million, with
plans to eventually build a permanent memorial on the site. Some
members of the City Council had balked at the price tag, which was
roughly $600,000 higher than an internal appraisal the city had
conducted.