CORTEZ – Manatee County has issued a 30- day demolition notice for the removal of Annie’s Bait and Tackle Shop.
“We haven’t received the letter yet, but I was told it’s coming,” Annie’s co-owner, Bruce Shearer, said on March 15. He doesn’t know the final date yet.
The Manatee County Commission voted 6-1 on March 4 for the demolition of the 70-year-old Cortez landmark, which is sited on the Seafood Shack parcel that was recently purchased by the county for $13 million and is slated to become a public boat launch facility. The vote followed recommendations by a structural engineer, the Florida Division of Emergency Management and fire officials based on damage from Hurricanes Helene and Milton last year.
Shearer took issue with the county’s characterization that the building was beyond repair.
“Their own report says it’s under the 50% damage,” he said. “That building is solid as a rock. It’s an old wooden building. It’s history they’re taking away there.”
Shearer said he felt that the commission’s intent was always to remove Annie’s from the property.
“I think it was a dog and pony show all the way through,” Shearer said. “They wasted everyone’s time. We were railroaded. Tal (Manatee County Commissioner Tal Siddique) was bound and determined to turn that into concrete.”
Shearer’s daughter, Anna Gaffey, told The Sun on March 13 she felt the hurricane damage was a convenient excuse for the county to have Annie’s removed.
“We believe the plan was to get us out, and the hurricanes were the perfect excuse,” she said.
She said she reached out to Manatee County Commissioner Jason Bearden, the sole dissenting vote against the demolition, to question the less than 50% damage estimate.
“He told me he’d love to bring it back, but he doesn’t have the support of the other commissioners,” Gaffey said. “It was heartbreaking.”
“We gave Bruce a 30-day notice,” Siddique wrote in a March 13 text message to The Sun. “I notified his daughter; we’ve been in close contact. They’re mad understandably, but it’s a lot of misunderstanding.”
“When it’s demolished, I want to invite him (Siddique) and his family to watch my family’s building being torn down,” Shearer said.
Shearer said his offer to make repairs at his own expense was declined by the county.
“I offered to repair the building and the docks to keep going,” he said. “I don’t own the docks, but I was willing to fix them. With the lease payments I would have been making, that would have been about half a million dollars total. And they turned it down.”
He said county workers moved his personal items and restaurant equipment out of Annie’s without his knowledge and the items were placed in storage waiting for his retrieval.
“I’m going to have to go get the things and I’ll probably be selling some of the items,” he said.
Shearer said he has been looking for a spot to open another Annie’s but has had no luck.
“There’s nothing around,” he said.
Shearer said locals are not happy about the demolition order and he half-jokingly said he may fill his truck up with ice to chill the beer for 500 Cortezians who could show up to watch Annie’s come down.
“Nobody has anything good to say about this,” Shearer said.
Related coverage:
County decides to demolish iconic Annie’s in Cortez
