FORT PIERCE — Crabby's Dockside Restaurant has been granted an additional 60 days to find a new tenant for its city-owned waterfront location, giving operators more time to pursue a possible lease assignment before the city moves to terminate the lease.
City commissioners approved the extension after staff said discussions are underway with a prospective assignee identified by the restaurant's legal counsel.
Economic Development Director Shyanne Harnage said the city is coordinating with Crabby's representatives while reviewing information about the potential new operator.
"The city attorney has been in touch with their legal counsel. They have sent us some preliminary information about a potential assignee who is interested in the property," she said. "They are working out the details of that assignment. They're pending some information from us and they're working that out and we need some additional time as well to vet and review who that potential assignee is. So we are asking you tonight for a 60-day extension of that period."
During the extension, city staff will evaluate whether the prospective tenant is a suitable fit for the property. If those discussions fall through, the city could move ahead with ending the lease before the 60-day period expires.
"If this group turns out to be not interested or goes in a different direction, we will come back to you sooner than that and move forward with the lease termination. But that is where we are tonight," Harnage said.
Crabby's abruptly closed Feb. 15. It was later revealed that the restaurant was behind on rent and property tax payments totaling about $215,000.
The operators had initially requested an 18-month rent abatement to allow time to catch up on those obligations, but commissioners denied the request. Instead, they approved a 90-day window for Crabby's to secure a new operator willing to take over the lease on the city-owned property.
That deadline has now passed, prompting the request for additional time.
Commissioner Michael Broderick said the extension was consistent with what he expected when the city first approved the lease assignment process.
"I anticipated this when the original arrangement was put into place with the primary tenant to give them the opportunity to seek out a lease assignment. They're in the restaurant business, now they're in the leasing business and that's not an easy transition. I'm not going to get into the minutiae on that, I'm just going to say I agree with the extension, we should have had it in to begin with," he said.
If Crabby's is unable to secure an approved assignee, the city will terminate the lease.
Crabby's Dockside opened in 2020 after replacing the original Tiki Bar, a transition that generated controversy at the time.