The restaurant is still on the drawing board, but a tenant for the city pier is in the works.
Mayor Dan Murphy presented city commissioners Aug. 22 with an offer for a new lease for the Anna Maria City Pier — which would begin in December 2020 — from current leaseholder Mario Schoenfelder.
Schoenfelder’s offer includes a payment of $12,000 a month for the T-end, including the restaurant, bait shop and bathrooms, as well as the boat landing attached to the walkway and parking. The offer stipulates that rent payments would be delayed six months to accommodate the build-out and get the business started.
The tenant would maintain the interior of the T-end buildings, while the city would maintain the exterior, according to the offer.
The city budgeted $500,000 from the tenant toward the construction of the new pier, but Murphy said Schoenfelder’s offer is for a $250,000 contribution to the facility build-out. Schoenfelder also will invest $250,000 in restaurant equipment.
Murphy asked commissioners to come to a consensus on their preferences so he could begin negotiations. He said talks would be fruitless if the city and Schoenfelder couldn’t agree on key elements, premises and maintenance.
Commissioner Doug Copeland said he preferred including the bathrooms in the common area because the pier will be open 24 hours a day.
“I want the city to control as much of the space as possible,” he added.
Commissioners voted 5-0 to designate the bathrooms as common areas, not included as premises in the lease.
Commission Chair Brian Seymour also wants the city to maintain as much of the pier as possible, adding that the city should hire third-party management to fulfill the responsibilities.
Murphy suggested the city maintain the entire pier and charge the tenant additional rent for maintenance on the leased premises.
Commissioners voted 5-0 to maintain the entire pier and charge the tenant maintenance for the leased premises.
Murphy said he would relay the commission’s preferences to Schoenfelder and return to commissioners with an update at a future meeting.
The positive example of design should be Bridge Street Pier, It would be better to have a Restaurant on the Pier, but a rent of $12000 per month could doom their existence. Why not consider a fixed dollar amount plus a percentage of total sales.This approach can allow the owner to build their business and the city to increase revenue by allowing them to grow over time.
I am the owner and I never ever said this, I was never ” hostile to exploring other options to using styrafoam” ! The complete opposite is true!
Well, no matter who buys it, seriously hope they are learned enough to NOT use styrofoam for cups, take outs, etcetera. Recall a few years back talking to a former employee of the Rod n Reel and this person said the owner was basically hostile to exploring other options to using styrafoam! Unbelievable. We quit eating there on principle after that.