ANNA MARIA – The city hosted a town hall meeting regarding the future use of the City Pier building previously occupied by Mote Marine.
Many who spoke during Tuesday, Jan. 27, meeting would like to see a full-service, sit-down restaurant on the pier.
Mayor Mark Short scheduled the town hall meeting because he and the city commission wanted to hear what the public wants to see in the hurricane-impacted pier space vacated by Mote Marine. The building previously occupied by Mote Marine is the larger of the two city-owned buildings at the T-end of the pier.
Anna Maria General Store owner/operator Brian Seymour and his business partners hold the lease on the smaller pier building from which they operated The City Pier Grill & Bait Shop from 2020 until Hurricane Milton ripped away the City Pier walkway in October 2024. The smaller pier building does not provide space for indoor seating.
Before opening the town hall meeting up for public input, Mayor Mark Short said the pier replacement project that includes the construction of a new pier walkway and also includes repairs and remediation to the hurricane-impacted pier buildings and the replacement of utility lines and other infrastructure needs is now estimated cost between $7.1 million to $7.8 million.
Short said that cost estimate doesn’t include the higher amperage power supply and the interior buildout that might be needed to operate a larger, full-service restaurant on the pier.
Short said his goal is to have the City Pier fully reopened at some point this fall.
Short said the county’s desire to install a Gulf Islands Ferry landing alongside the new City Pier walkway to accommodate the larger, partially enclosed 96-passenger ferry boat (Manatee Belle) the county could result in 90 passengers getting off the boat and 90 more passengers waiting to board the boat at the same time and that too would impact the future use of the pier buildings.
Short said he doesn’t want the City Pier to become exclusively used as a staging area for the county’s ferry passengers and he wants the pier to remain available to all users.
Commissioner John Lynch said he believes the mayor and commission are embracing the county’s ferry service but there are “critical issues” that need to be addressed regarding the flow of all those additional people on the pier.
Short said he and the commission need to have a pretty good sense of how the pier buildings will be used before the pier walkway is fully constructed and completed by March 31.
PUBLIC INPUT
Short asked that one town hall attendee at a time come forward at a time to suggest a potential use of the pier building to be discussed before another potential use was suggested.
Speaking first, Anna Maria resident Amir Banaly said he’d like to see the larger pier building used as a coffee shop.
“I think it’s very simple to accommodate and accomplish without any changes,” he said.
Anna Maria resident Janis Ian suggested a coffee stand with one or two New York City-style hotdog carts.
“I think a hot dog cart on the pier would look cool,” Ian said.
She also encouraged the mayor and commission not to be held hostage by the county regarding the impacts a larger ferry boat would have on the pier operations.
Seymour suggested an operation similar to what former pier tenant Mario Schoenfelder did until Hurricane Irma closed the previous pier in 2017. Schoenfelder operated the City Pier Restaurant in the larger pier building and a bait shop and draft beer bar in the smaller building.
Seymour said he and his business partners still have 15 months remaining on the hurricane-suspended lease that was scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, 2025. He said he and his partners also have the option to lease the pier for five more years beyond the remaining 15 months that will resume when the pier reopens.
Seymour said it may not make sense for him to resume his City Pier Grill operations in the small building only. He said he would be interested in leasing both pier buildings to operate a sit-down restaurant in the large building and use the smaller building as a bait shop that serves draft pier and provides additional storage space.
Anna Maria resident Cory Jackson said he’s president of Anna Maria Beach Cottages and his rental guests tell him they would like a to see a sit-down restaurant on the pier again.
“I think it’s very critical that we have a restaurant,” Jackson said.
Anna Maria resident and planning and zoning board member Jeff Rodencal suggested revisiting a previously discarded idea to install a stand-alone ferry landing between the pier walkway and the Lake La Vista jetty and he encouraged the commission to consider not landing all the ferry passengers on the City Pier at all.
No decisions were made during the town hall meeting and the future use of the City Pier buildings will remain an ongoing topic of conversation for the mayor and commission until some decisions are made.
