Bradley Nelson, who owns the Ybor City gay bar Bradley’s on 7th, said Oct. 22 that the bar will seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It’s been almost a year since a car that had been chased by a state trooper slammed into people outside his door and killed four.
He made the announcement in a social media post. The same day, he sold Utopia Road Bar & Courtyard, the sister bar he opened nearby in 2024.
“I want to make it clear that this is the best thing for Bradley’s,” Nelson wrote, WFLA reported.
Sales fell 86% in November 2025 and 64% that December, he wrote, according to Tampa Bay 28. So far this year, they’re down $500,000 from 2025.
“In retrospect, Bradley’s should have just closed after the accident,” he wrote. The new landlord made quick repairs, he wrote, yet the barricades, candles and flowers out front lingered. “Many customers were reasonably uncomfortable coming back to Bradley’s.”
Then the new year brought its own trouble. “The start of 2026 was not much better, but we could see that it was at that point being the economy in general,” Nelson wrote, according to WTSP. He cited gas, food and rent.
Crash Survivors Including Kilani England Sued Bradley’s on 7th
Nelson told customers the filing will make the crash lawsuits go away. WTSP reported that Chapter 11 would pause them. Nelson called the suits unfair because, he wrote, Bradley’s “had no liability.”
Kilani England sued in Hillsborough County in August. She named the driver, the city of Tampa, the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the bar, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Her suit says the retractable belt stanchions between the patio and the street gave no “meaningful protection” from a car. She’s asking for more than $50,000.
Camaron Parker, another survivor, sued too, Fox 13 reported in September. The plaintiffs argue the bar should have put up barriers for patrons near the road.
Nelson expects the bankruptcy filing to become public within two to three weeks, Watermark reported.
The Nov. 8, 2025, Crash Outside 1510 E. Seventh Ave.
Shortly after 12:40 a.m., a Toyota Camry being chased into Ybor by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper hit a car at North 15th Street and then struck people outside Bradley’s, WTSP reported. Four people died and 13 were hurt, Spectrum Bay News 9 reported. The driver, Silas Sampson, 22, is charged with vehicular homicide, fleeing to elude and DUI manslaughter, among other counts.
Nelson’s first thought, he told Axios Tampa Bay that December, was “Was this a hate crime?”
The bar reopened Nov. 10. Daniel Johnson, president of Pride of Tampa, had organized a vigil. “When I got married five years ago, it’s one of the places we came for our bachelor party,” he told Bay News 9.
In May, Tampa police barred officers from asking another agency to start a chase TPD policy wouldn’t allow, WUSF reported.
Utopia Road Will Reopen as Ybor City’s First Chance, Last Chance
Utopia Road opened in May 2024 at 1707 N. 16th St., Watermark reported the next spring. The sale took effect Oct. 22. The buyers haven’t been named. They’ll run it as Ybor City’s First Chance, Last Chance, which WFLA described as an “upscale dive/sports bar.” Utopia’s workers get two weeks of severance.
“It just never took off the way it needed to,” Nelson wrote. He wrote that a karaoke format brought some people in but raised costs. “Bradley’s could no longer support Utopia.”
Bradley’s will keep its regular operations, Nelson said. He noted it’s been open almost 16 years.
“We will still be here to service all our customers,” he wrote.
