FORT PIERCE \u2013 The Fort Pierce City Commission is expected to hear an update tonight on whether a reopening or a lawsuit will be next for a downtown waterfront restaurant location owned by the city.<\/p>\n
Commissioners had set today as the deadline for current leaseholder Winking Starfish LLC to determine if it will find another operator to take over its lease or face a lawsuit by the city.<\/p>\n
Even if a new operator can be found to reopen the bar\/restaurant, the issue of more than $209,000 due the city in unpaid rent and property taxes must still be resolved.<\/p>\n
Crabby\u2019s was abruptly shuttered by its operators in February after the city billed Crabby\u2019s for several years of property taxes that the city had apparently paid and failed to bill the operator, plus unpaid rent from October 2025 through February 2026.<\/p>\n
The city said it learned about the closing from an online social media post after Winking Starfish had asked the city to forgive the arrearages and an additional 18 months of future lease payments to \u201cstabilize\u201d its finances.<\/p>\n
Crabby\u2019s current 40-year lease on the city-owned waterfront property calls for paying monthly rent, a percentage of its sales and property taxes. The city had estimated the agreement would generate more than $3 million in revenue over the course of the lease.<\/p>\n
Winking Starfish claimed a lack of convenient downtown parking and the failure to generate expected traffic from King\u2019s Landing, a large downtown commercial and residential development that has faced major delays, hampered Crabby\u2019s original business plan. Comments from online posters have claimed the restaurant\u2019s offerings were responsible for poor performance.<\/p>\n
Winking Starfish invested a reported $4 million in building a new, two-story facility on the site. According to the city, there is no outstanding lienholder on that building.<\/p>\n
City officials are wrestling with what happens next to the site they consider a prime downtown location. They have observed that Winking Starfish could declare bankruptcy and walk away from the lease, or find a new operator to sublet the space.<\/p>\n
\u201c…The tenant has provided initial feedback indicating an interest in exploring the assignment option,\u201d says a memo from city staff to commissioners. \u201cIf the tenant declines or is unable to pursue assignment, staff will request that the commission consider approval of a resolution terminating the lease and authorizing litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
City government has been plagued by multiple allegations of mismanagement of city-owned property.<\/p>\n
A lease for Little Jim Bait and Tackle resulted in the city paying more for solid waste disposal than it was collecting in rent. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection also has raised questions about unpermitted construction there and encroachment on state-owned land.<\/p>\n
A lease on a Means Court property with Incubate Neighbor Center resulted in the city paying more than $100,000 of utility bills and maintenance costs that should have been paid by the non-profit tenant. That building has been closed for several years due to building violations.<\/p>\n
Camille Wallace was named deputy city manager in March and her job responsibilities will include lease oversight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE \u2013 The Fort Pierce City Commission is expected to hear an update tonight on whether a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":{"0":"post-220737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news","11":"tag-st_lucie"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}