The former Joe’s Crab Shack at 2024 W. First St. sits along the waterfront near downtown Fort Myers. Nervous Nellie’s owners Len and Tyler Lemmer plan to open Nellie’s Boatyard at the site by the end of the year.
Nellie’s Boatyard
The owners of Nervous Nellie’s are expanding their restaurant portfolio with a new waterfront concept near downtown Fort Myers.
Len and Tyler Lemmer plan to open Nellie’s Boatyard by the end of the year in the former Joe’s Crab Shack at 2024 W. First St.
The waterfront building has housed just two restaurants in more than four decades. It opened as a Chart House steakhouse in 1984 before becoming Joe’s Crab Shack in 2004. Joe’s closed when its lease ended in May 2025.
Since then, brokers Mike Doyle and Michael Price at LQ Commercial Group have been looking for the right tenant for the landlord, which also owns the adjacent Legacy Harbour Marina, where construction is wrapping up.
“We’re hoping to have permits secured very, very soon,” Tyler Lemmer said. “It’s going to be a spinoff of Nervous Nellie’s. I don’t like the word upscale, but it’s going to be polished. We’ll have a lot of steak, some sandwiches, seafood for sure.”
Fowler Construction will do the buildout. Len Lemmer said he anticipated spending close to $1 million to remodel the interior of the new Nellie’s Boatyard.
“New floors, new bar, new bathrooms,” Tyler Lemmer said. “It’s all going to be fresh and new. People will not recognize it, I guarantee it.
Work is underway around the former Joe’s Crab Shack at 2024 W. First St., where Nervous Nellie’s owners Len and Tyler Lemmer plan to open Nellie’s Boatyard by the end of the year.
David Dorsey
“Polished coastal. Like a coastal vibe. Very clean. I want people to eat there three to five times a week, not just once or twice a year on special occasions. I want all the locals to feel good about coming here three times a week. I think we’ll have a lot of different things to offer than a lot of these seafood restaurants around here.”
The process to lease the building was competitive, with 10 different companies in the conversation, Price said.
The Lemmers bought Nervous Nellie’s restaurant in 2014. In July of this year, at the same time they signed the lease for what had been Joe’s Crab Shack, they also bought out their Fort Myers Beach landlord, paying $8.5 million for the Estero Bay-front property where Nervous Nellie’s is located.
The Lemmers said they wanted to keep the Nellie’s name for their new concept while tweaking it to Nellie’s Boatyard.
“Some years are good,” Len Lemmer said of the restaurant business. “Some years are not so good. But after you’re in the business for a while, you’ve got banking people who roll with you a little bit.
“It was a little bit iffy when Nellie’s was closed [after Hurricane] Ian. But we came through that. Ever since Ian, the restaurant business has been good. From when we opened until now, our sales have been spectacular, really.”
The Lemmers have been running each of their restaurants under different corporate names.
Cantina Laredo, adjacent to Bell Tower in south Fort Myers, has operated under L&S Restaurant Concepts Inc. Len Lemmer bought the restaurant after moving to the area from Melbourne in 2004.
Estero Island Restaurants owns Nervous Nellie’s.
The former Joe’s Crab Shack at 2024 W. First St. near downtown Fort Myers will become Nellie’s Boatyard. Len and Tyler Lemmer plan to spend nearly $1 million remodeling the waterfront restaurant.
David Dorsey
WO of Southwest Florida owns Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux off Pine Island Road in Cape Coral, which opened in April 2025.
River District Restaurants is the corporate entity the Lemmers created to operate the new Nellie’s Boatyard concept. The Lemmers are confident in it.
“It’s been two restaurants in 40-plus years,” Tyler Lemmer said of the location. “That’s a pretty good track record when it comes to restaurants. The view there is amazing. It’s a 200-degree view of the water there. You’ve got a bridge there. The view from side to side is one of the best in the area.”
When the Lemmers first submitted their bid to LQ Commercial Group in April, they didn’t get it.
“And then they came back to us two months later because the other deal fell through,” Tyler Lemmer said. “That’s just the way it goes with restaurants. Especially one like that where it’s waterfront. I can’t be the only person who envisions it being an awesome waterfront seafood restaurant. Obviously, there are other players in the area that are trying to do what we do.”
Eventually winning the opportunity to lease the space invigorated the Lemmers, they said.
“It was exciting,” Tyler Lemmer said. “We’ve been looking for another kind of Nellie’s waterfront spot. They don’t come along too often. People don’t give up on waterfront real estate very easily. We were super excited.”
Price said the landlords are excited, too.
“They were on a path forward, throttle up,” Price said of the Lemmers. “That place deserves something special, just for what it is. It’s a special place.”