JENSEN BEACH, Fla. — Two weeks of hard work, gone in minutes.
A small business owner is heartbroken after trying to bring a dash of color to the neighborhood.
Jensen Beach has its own artsy, funky, colorful vibe.
“I fell in love with it in the first 20 minutes,” said Kelly Adams, the owner of Bunkhouse Coffee Bar.
She started the shop in downtown Jensen Beach three years ago, but like many small businesses right now she’s struggling.
“We’ve dropped 92 percent of our business. It’s just outrageous,” said Adams.
With a lot of downtime, she asked her employee Christina Guerrant if she wanted to paint a mural on the side of the building.
“What better of a time to paint it than when it’s dead and people need something exciting and happy in their lives,” said Guerrant.
The mural was tropical theme with a parrot, flowers and a large flamingo.
But after spending nearly every day for two weeks on it, they received a rude surprise Tuesday night.
“I was at work yesterday, and I was closing and a gentleman just showed up and started painting,” said Adams.
It’s hard now to tell the mural even existed.
“Pulling up today I saw it, and I was like, ‘Oh, that's so sad,'” said Guerrant.
The coffee shop is part of a homeowners association, and Adams admits she jumped the gun with her idea.
“We were supposed to get it approved by the association and we didn’t take those steps. I didn’t take those steps to submit it and get it approved first and that’s totally my fault,” said Adams.
The property management company said the owner of the building realizing they were in violation, reached out to them and asked that the mural be painted over.
Still, with everything else going on, Adams finds it hard to believe that someone didn’t want the mural around.
“It’s a shame, that’s not what Jensen Beach is .... all that mural did was bring happiness to our community,” said Adams.
Adams says she’s not defeated. A tip jar was set out Wednesday to try and rebuild the mural fund, to bring back the color outside her coffee shop.
