{"id":431527,"date":"2026-10-18T21:56:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T21:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/431527\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T21:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T21:56:25","slug":"fort-pierce-ends-lease-with-crabbys-dockside-operator-over-unpaid-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/431527\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Pierce ends lease with Crabby&#8217;s Dockside operator over unpaid bills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fort Pierce city commissioners voted to terminate their lease with the former operator of Crabby&#8217;s Dockside, citing unpaid bills and plans to find a new operator for the waterfront restaurant.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/news-team\/1d285e40-3020-40f9-91d2-95bedac0df16\" aria-label=\"Rachel Williams profile page\" class=\"css-15eikfp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792360585_205_1d285e40-3020-40f9-91d2-95bedac0df16_1763041535.png\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" alt=\"Rachel Williams\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a>FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"0\">Fort Pierce city commissioners voted unanimously to end their lease with the former operator of Crabby&#8217;s Dockside and begin searching for a new operator for the waterfront restaurant. <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"1\">The restaurant, located along Avenue A at the Fort Pierce Marina, closed in February. The city said its operator, Winking Starfish, owed more than $418,000 in rent, taxes, and late fees. After recalculating the balance, the city now says the amount owed is nearly $334,000.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"3\">Winking Starfish identified a potential new operator for the restaurant, but city officials said the proposal sought favorable terms.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"4\">City Manager Richard Chess told commissioners that the city would allow interested restaurateurs to compete for the location.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"5\">The city plans to set requirements for potential operators, with the city commission making the final decision.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"7\">   &#8220;Our marina is very, very successful, and we&#8217;re very proud of it, and that location, that Crabby&#8217;s location, is a very critical part of the marina,&#8221; Mayor Linda Hudson said.  <\/p>\n<p>Chess also said during the meeting that a new agreement would combine rent and other payments into one amount, based on the property&#8217;s market value.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"8\">Stay up to date: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The latest headlines and weather from WPBF 25<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"9\">Get the latest news updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/article\/get-wpbf-25-news-on-the-go\/999316\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"10\">Follow us on social: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpbf25news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPBF25News\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wpbf25news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WPBF\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@wpbf25news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TikTok<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Pierce city commissioners voted to terminate their lease with the former operator of Crabby&#8217;s Dockside, citing unpaid&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[40955,187,169302,169303,169306,3886,18694,5985,169304,171,173,172,17486,169305,99663,221,169307,189],"class_list":["post-431527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-amount","tag-city","tag-crabby","tag-dockside-operator","tag-former-operator","tag-fort-pierce","tag-lease","tag-location","tag-new-operator","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-rent","tag-unpaid-bill","tag-waterfront-restaurant","tag-weather","tag-winking-starfish","tag-wpbf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431527","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=431527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}