FORT PIERCE – A Milford, MI developer’s proposal for the long-term lease of city-owned Little Jim’s Bait & Tackle was rated higher than one from the current operator by a municipal panel that evaluated two plans for the historic North Hutchinson Island restaurant/bar.
After city staff deemed three other bidders “non-responsive,” three city staffers named to an evaluation team awarded a proposal from Luigi Lucaj 228 points, while Salty 3 Baitshack LLC, the current Little Jim’s operator, got 218.5 points. Two of the three evaluators gave their nod to Lucaj.
City officials did not respond to requests Friday for comment on when the recommendation will go to the Fort Pierce City Commission for the award of a new, 20-year property lease that will see the operator share some portion of its profits with the city.
The evaluators’ scoring was done Sept. 23, following a series of questions surrounding how the bidders had responded to the city’s June request for proposals.
Two potential bidders were disqualified in June after the city said they failed to meet deadlines, despite their claims the city had not satisfactorily responded to pre-bid questions surrounding zoning, boundaries and operating liability.
In September, a third bidder was ruled “non-responsive” for reportedly failing to submit a balance sheet with their bid package.
Some evaluators questioned whether Salty 3 had met its bid obligation after it said it would “negotiate” a profit-sharing agreement with the city only after it was awarded the lease.
Officials also said site plans proposed by the two contenders would not be evaluated for their building code compliance or timelines until after a winner was chosen.
One of the proposals suggested adding a second story to the historic, former World War II guard shack building and the two bidders’development timelines ranged from six months to over two years.
Evaluators scored the two finalists on their food service industry experience, site plan design and financial capability to perform.
Salty 3 is a registered business in Florida. Luigi Lucaj is not listed in Florida records at this point.
Still to be determined is how the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) will handle boundary and building violations it has identified at Little Jim’s. The FDEP believes the restaurant parcel encroaches on state land and that docks constructed there were never properly permitted.
It’s uncertain whether the next leaseholder will have to pay to cure those issues and/or potential fines.
Little Jim’s is located off the waterfront causeway that links Fort Pierce with North Hutchinson Island. It was originally a guard building to access a Navy training center here during World War II. The U.S. Navy gave the land to the city when the base closed in 1944.