When George and Denise Shinn bought their first home in Vero seven years ago, Denise Shinn thought it would be just that – home.
But George just kept on house-hunting. The former owner of the NBA’s Charlotte-New Orleans Hornets, ever the deal-maker, made a succession of Vero purchases that included two oceanfront luxury homes, a house for Denise’s mother in Grand Harbor, and the iconic Lemon Tree restaurant.
And that was just in Vero. Shinn’s also had homes and holdings in the Florida panhandle, the mountains of North Carolina and Franklin, Tennessee.
With all those houses, he still needed garage space – Shinn is a lifelong collector of vintage cars. Though a formal bid never materialized, at one point Shinn proposed acquiring Vero’s city-owned historic diesel plant to store his collection, offering to run it as a non-profit car museum. He raised his public profile further last year when he bought the Lemon Tree restaurant on Ocean Drive.
Finally this spring, Denise Shinn, who is 47, says she decided she didn’t want to house-hop anymore. “I just wanted to feel settled,” she says. “He was not ready for that, and I felt it wasn’t fair to hold him back.”
April 6, she filed for divorce. By May 31, the divorce was final. Denise will stay in the most modest of the three homes the couple owned on the island, which is on the river in Pebble Bay. The two oceanfront mansions bought in 2014 and 2015 were auctioned off April 30, selling at a considerable loss for $5.4 million and $3.3 million; those deals closed last week.
Denise says George will live in Pensacola – mostly.
“We were just at two different points in our lives,” she says. “George has always been extremely goal-oriented and motivated and non-stop, and I just wanted more of a simple lifestyle. It wasn’t fair to me to continue being his cheerleader.
“I wanted to feel we had a true home, not have homes everywhere. It’s hard to feel you’re part of a community when you’re three months here and four months there.”
After 16 years, the two remain close, she says. “We talk five times a day,” she says. “We’re just so compatible, and truly loved – and love – each other. We just could not work through it.”
The split was so amicable that the two just spent the weekend together – George wanted Denise at a party in Texas for his brother’s 60th wedding anniversary. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” says Denise.
To many Vero residents, the most important division of assets concerns the Lemon Tree, a beloved breakfast and lunch spot on Ocean Drive, a Shinn acquisition from only a year ago that Denise says she will keep.
Last weekend, a sign citing a family emergency said the place was closed. The grumbling – stomachs and otherwise – turned to worry when, on Monday, the café still hadn’t opened.
Denise Shinn said the hiatus was not due to the divorce but to a double dose of desertion restaurant-style, when first one cook quit three weeks ago and then, while Denise was out of town, a second cook quit last Friday.
“The Lemon Tree is a great family restaurant but sometimes in the kitchen, it can be too much family,” she says of the discord.
Denise Shinn says she intends to assume “a little more active role” in the business.
She is hoping not to be closed on Mondays, as a chalkboard outside the restaurant stated last week. “I don’t think the Lemon Tree should be closed any days. We’ve just got to have more help.”
As for Denise Shinn, she is thinking of getting just one more home, a small one, probably in the Charlotte area where she’s from originally and still has a strong network of friends.
Meanwhile, in Vero, she says she’s adjusting to being alone. “I’m fine, I’m happy. I’m just trying to learn to be on my own.”
