BRADENTON BEACH – The future Cortez Marina at the site of the former Seafood Shack restaurant is expected to become an integral part of Manatee County’s Gulf Islands Ferry system.
County commissioners and Bradenton Beach officials discussed the expansion at a June 18 joint meeting.
“Something that we’re considering is the potential addition of a water taxi at what we’re tentatively calling the Cortez Marina,” County Commissioner Tal Siddique said. “We are currently in the process of building a dimensional plan for that and potentially coming out to the community to see what partners might be interested in abiding to that concept with us. You take what’s today an hour ride that would be shortened by half with the new boat and with a 10-minute stopover at the new property.”
Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Elliott Falcione said the county hopes to make the marina a ferry stop and eventually keep ferries overnight there.
Bradenton Beach commissioner Ralph Cole asked if the marina would have a parking facility for people who drive to the marina and take the ferry.
“We’re still in early design stage, we’re talking about parking, we’re talking about other opportunities in that greater area,” County Commission Chair George Kruse said. “One of the concepts has been to have the ferry come across because that alleviates traffic and keeps cars off your Island. But to do that, we’re going to need sufficient parking because we’re going to need parking for the boat launches for the trailers and other utilization. If we’re going to use this ferry, we’ll have to contemplate how we can maximize parking as part of the design.”
“We all know what’s happening in Cortez with the intensity of the corridor,” Siddique said. “The ferry is one part of it. That’s something I’m factoring in so we can have a sustainable action plan inclusive of the Island in the future.”
Currently, two 49-passenger pontoon ferry boats run on a two-stop system between downtown Bradenton and Bridge Street in Bradenton Beach, a reduced route since the 2024 hurricanes.
“After Hurricane Milton, Anna Maria lost the City Pier and that was one of our landing spots, Falcione said. “The city of Anna Maria is hoping to have that pier rebuilt by late 2026, concurrent with (Manatee County Director of Natural Resources) Charlie Hunsicker’s department to start designing and permitting for a vaulted perpendicular dock to accommodate not just one water ferry, but two; and you’ll have a transfer there. You’ll bring people out of Bradenton, stop, and then the pontoon (boats) will take them to historic Bridge Street.”
Falcione said a larger third water ferry with an enclosed component should be on the water for late summer sea trials and be operational in the fall.
“It will be about 100,000 pounds compared to the two 30,000-pound pontoon catamarans we have now,” he said.
He thanked City Attorney Ricinda Perry for working with Duncan Seawall to make the modifications to the Bradenton Beach Pier to accommodate the third ferry.
“We know that the retailers on Bridge Street are real happy when that ferry pulls in,” Falcione said. “More importantly we have to get down to Coquina Beach. It looks like the south boat ramp is probably the spot. And what that does is it entices more residents to ride the ferry because that’s one of the beaches of choice. If we have about 70% visitors and 30% residents, then we’re doing good,” Falcione said, adding the hope is to begin Coquina Beach service no later than the fall.
Falcione said the ferry service passenger count for 2024 was nearly 28,000 riders.
“That’s about 13,000 cars off the road,” he said.
The MCAT Manatee My Stop app can show visitors having lunch at Anna Maria Oyster Bar on Bridge Street where the ferry is, Falcione said.
Ricinda Perry introduced herself as the Bradenton Beach city attorney and CRA director/project manager/public information officer recently named by Police Chief John Cosby to be his number two for emergency operations.
“In wearing that hat, I get to play a lot of different roles in the city that meld together and I think my most favorite is what I do here with the TDC (Manatee County Tourist Development Council),” Perry said. “The TDC in its projects hits a lot of points and pulls a lot of things together that city attorneys don’t get to do when we’re sitting and writing laws. You have the components where you come up with a creative project, and you look at ways that project can benefit the community, protect our residents with a strategic idea of targeting the individuals that we host.”
She spoke about where the city of Bradenton Beach started, its present and its future.
“The water ferry is certainly a big piece of it,” she said. “Bradenton Beach has the vehicle gateway to the city but what was underutilized was the waterfront gateway into the city.”
“When I started 21 years ago, I remember seeing this mess, and when I say a mess, I’m talking about derelict vessels, irresponsible boaters who were dragging their anchors across the seagrasses, they were dumping things overboard into the waterway,” she said. “What we talked about, mainly – chief and I – was what are we going do about this, because it resulted in unsavory individuals who were utilizing that and those individuals would then get off their vessels and they would come down the streets and that impacted tourism. People wanted to stay away from the commercial corridor.”
She said the city obtained jurisdiction over additional boundaries to allow policing in the mooring field and more than 80 derelict vessels were removed.
“The plan is to eventually work with the TDC and make it a tourist hub and (the ferry) an alternate means of getting onto the Island without using a vehicle,” she said.
She said the pier was beyond its age and needed repair and replacement.
“It was a challenge with DEP (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) permits, FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission), ACoE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) and submerged land leases. The city worked on getting a permit to put in a floating dock system. The city realized they needed a strong anchor tenant on the pier. AMOB (Anna Maria Oyster Bar) is a huge draw. When the ferry does its drop off, how do you get people moving when they don’t have a car? And they have their towels and their beach toys, and they want to get down to Coquina. How do you connect that last mile?” Perry said.
She described three segments of a plan to move visitors around the city.
“Segment one: Cortez to Bradenton Beach Pier. If you’re putting your marina in and potentially having people parking and enjoying your amenities over on the mainland side, it would be great to connect a walkway from where the bridge stops, have it multi-modal to host golf carts, bicycles and pedestrians so they can walk if they want across the Cortez Bridge and make their way down through the existing marina that’s there,” she said. “I’ve had discussions with that owner (Shawn Kaleta). People can then make their way down to your other stop on the Bradenton Beach Pier. It makes that stop more usable.”
“Segment two would then tie in from the Bradenton Beach Pier a usable crossing area over to the beach that would take you to the county’s segment and the idea is to create a multi-modal trail that continues along.”
“Segment three: That final section that needs to be put together for the multi-modal trail could be from Fifth Street South to Coquina Beach,” Perry said.
Related coverage:
City, county officials discuss pier replacement, ferry landing
