By Neil Farrell

A proposal to rebuild the lease site at Off the Hook Restaurant was tossed back April 26 by the City Council, in favor of putting the lease site out for new bids on redevelopment.

The vote comes after the Council last January gave the lease holder, B&L Flash, Inc., 90 days to come up with a proposal that could meet muster for a conceptual plan approval, and to prove they had the financial backing to build it.

B&L Flash, through a sub-leasor, Cherise Hansson of Under the Sea Gallery, had proposed rebuilding the property into a full 2-story structure, with a restaurant and retail shops on the ground floor and motel rooms on top. Also, to put in a children’s play area and continuation of the Harborwalk along the waterside of the site.

While the Council’s requirements had essentially been met, Hansson told the Council that B&L Flash’s principal, Violet Leage, who is in her 80s, had given up on rebuilding the site.

She asked that she be allowed to move forward with the proposal they had put out, but in the end the Council decided not to do that and instead to put the site up for bids.

This would be the third time the lease site, which is set to expire in March 2018, has been put up for bids. The first was several years ago, when the lease holder next door, Burt Caldwell, whose lease site The Libertine Pub, is also coming up for renewal and redevelopment, put in a  bid to do both sites at the same time. Caldwell proposed a large conference center and retail center in a 2-story building.

Leage was at a disadvantage at that time because while Caldwell could propose building on her lease site, she had no right to bid on his. Caldwell’s proposal was approved by the Council and went to the Coastal Commission, which chopped it down to one story.

That proposal languished and eventually a previous Council withdrew its approvals and again split the two. Leage had proposed a modest remodel that kept the site much as it is, but lost the second floor and added increased space on the waterside for the Harborwalk.

Caldwell later proposed a micro-brewery project that was also approved by the Council but didn’t get much further than that. He recently won approval for a third proposal — a brew pub and retail on the ground floor and motel rooms on the second story, in a more ambitious project plan that would remove some street end parking and expand the building footprint.

Leage had made little progress with her proposal and subsequently ran into difficulties, falling behind in her payments to the Harbor Department and coming to odds with her tenant at Off the Hook, Marydee Bell. B&L Flash has since caught up on all its payments to the Harbor Department, according to Harbor Director Eric Endersby.

Also, to add a third issue, an old loan taken out years earlier against the lease site, had the promissory note purchased from the lender by Madeline Moore, a local real estate professional and housing developer, who was going to foreclose on the note in mid-April and would take over as the master lease holder.

So the third redevelopment proposal from B&L Flash came with some uncertainty and the Council decided to put the site up for new bids.

The City Manager said he believed they could put the “request for proposals” or RFP out in 30 days and take proposals for 45 days to bring back the best, most responsive proposals to Council in summer.