PORT ST. LUCIE \u2013 The City Council here voted unanimously April 13 to approve the first amendment to the lease agreement between the city and the developer of the Port District dining venue, which includes permission for temporary structures on the site and an expanded lift station provided by the city.<\/p>\n
Community Redevelopment Agency Director Jennifer Davis introduced the agenda item that afternoon. Her last update on the progress of the long-awaited restaurant on the banks of the St. Lucie River was last June, when she told the Council she\u2019d be before them \u201cin a few weeks\u201d with a draft amendment. That time span, however, morphed into nearly a year as she and Miami developer Gaurav Butani hammered out more details in that draft document.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis afternoon we\u2019re bringing you the first amendment to the lease agreement with PIII regarding the restaurant development at the Port District,\u201d she said of the park area south of the Botanic Garden. \u201cThe agreement is for PIII Investments to develop a multi-venue food garden concept consisting of one or more structures comprising up to 15,000 square feet. The benefit to the city will be achieving strategic goals with culture, nature and recreation, as well as a diverse economy and employment opportunities. There is no cost to the city associated with the lease agreement itself, and the lessor will be receiving revenue from the project.\u201d<\/p>\n
The original lease approved back in January 2023 with Butani \u2013 the manager of PIII Investments \u2013 actually involved a different Washington D.C.-based restaurateur to operate the riverfront establishment, but that entity backed out. During the June 23 update, Butani introduced officials from the Baltimore-based Atlas Restaurant Group who will now operate the facilities. Davis reminded the Board of the 30-year lease terms, which includes a base rent of $40,000 annually to be paid monthly with a 3 percent escalation and renewal options in five-year increments. The lessee would also be responsible for paying property taxes and assessments associated with the parcel as part of the contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe terms before you today modify approximately 11 sections within the definitions,\u201d she continued. \u201cIn addition, the temporary facilities were clarified. As this project was developed through the site plan process, a site plan amendment identified a phased-approach. As such, we did need to modify some language in the lease agreement. In addition, there was clarification about a due-diligence period with an existing ground lease that has since been terminated. Most of the other clarifications within the first amendment have to do with Phase 1 versus Phase 2.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last item in the lease agreement involved a change in the city-provided lift station on the property, whose capacity had initially been projected for a 6,000-square-foot restaurant and the park visitors to the area\u2019s new playground. The playground\u2019s success and Butani\u2019s revised plans for a multi-venue food garden now require more capacity.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, the city will be adjusting the lift station to a 550-seat capacity,\u201d Davis explained. \u201cAnything beyond that would be the lessee\u2019s responsibility in the future should they want to expand the restaurant service. Staff is recommending City Council approve the ordinance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vice-Mayor Jolien Caraballo was the first to comment afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank the city manager and the team for making that happen because I know that was a challenge,\u201d she said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t foresee the lift station having that much usage the way it did, which means the park is being supported, people are coming and the restaurant\u2019s going to help bring others to the area. I do see our lessee out in the audience. Can he provide us a quick update?\u201d<\/p>\n
Butani then addressed the Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re finally starting with construction,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we first started this project, we had a grand vision, and despite all the challenges, we stuck to the vision. Yes, it\u2019s taken time just getting our permits, and after the permits, it\u2019s just a process with the financing and the banks. We have a great national builder, we have a great design architect and everything else is in place. we\u2019re all very excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that construction\u2019s starting, when can we anticipate completed construction?\u201d Vice-Mayor Caraballo asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur construction completion date is May of next year,\u201d Butani replied. \u201cThen we have three or four months of per-operations with Atlas because we have several kitchens and several bars. It\u2019s kind of like starting up a massive ship in a way if you think about it. Atlas has told us they don\u2019t want to start in the middle of the summer when the weather isn\u2019t conducive to a nice opening. We\u2019ll figure out a nice date when we are ready to open and we\u2019ll do a pre-launch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acknowledging that the contract included temporary facilities, Butani didn\u2019t want to guarantee he\u2019d use those for an early opening at this point, however.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still working on the mechanics and we don\u2019t want to put an obstacle on the construction team by having some temporary kind of operations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The City Council then voted unanimously to approve the lease amendment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2013 The City Council here voted unanimously April 13 to approve the first amendment to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":["post-253487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-st_lucie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253487","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=253487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}