It's been rumored for many months but looks like a rumor come true. The Waterfront Market is set to close. The market is somewhat of a meeting place for Key West locals. Kind of like Cheers without bar stools. Many of the local restaurants and tourists shop there. The quality can't be beat. The food is fresh, prices are good and service is great. They carry all the specialty items that can't be found in the chain grocery stores. I personally love the deli section. I get my lunch there on a regular basis then the sugar junkie in me hits the fresh pastry section too. YUMMY!!
The following story was printed in Saturday's The Keynoter.
Planned closure has some fearing job futures
It's official - Buco Pantelis will soon close and walk away from the Waterfront Market grocery store he has owned for more than 20 years on the waterfront in Key West's Old Town.
In his wake are scores of employees and long-time customers left wondering how they are going to make it without him - and what kind of business will take the market's place.
“What are we going to do now? That's the question, and it's sinking in on us,” said Richard Hatch, owner of the Blue Heaven restaurant in Key West. “It's a sad day.”
Hatch said he has relied on Pantelis for the majority of his restaurant's fresh produce for 14 years. He says there is none better.
“He's got a huge semi truck and he makes a couple trips each week to Homestead,” Hatch said. “The produce is so fresh, and it's local, and we can order it just the way we like. Nothing compares to Buco's tomatoes, or his blueberries and strawberries.”
Marilyn Wilbarger, property manager for the Key West Bight, confirmed city officials received a letter this week from Pantelis' attorney, Ginny Stones, indicating the grocer would not sign a 10-year lease agreement he negotiated with the city in July, and would liquidate his business and close Sept. 30.
Wilbarger said the letter cites “the rising costs on all fronts, the unstable labor market, and the general downturn in the local economy” as reasons for not renewing the lease. In addition, the letter says “significant rent increases” and the “loss of lease exclusivity and other traditional lease enjoyments” were to blame for Pantelis throwing in the towel.
In an earlier letter from Stones to the city, this one Aug. 8, Pantelis asked for a delay until Oct. 1 for him to sign the agreement, citing “several personal matters which are directly related to [Pantelis'] ability to enter into a 10-year obligation with the city.” The city granted that request.
Since then, Key West officials had been waiting for Pantelis to sign the lease.
Wilbarger explained that the market portion of the Waterfront Market had not had a rent increase since 2001. Since then, she said Pantelis paid a base rent of $11,390 per month.
Under the new lease, his base rent climbed to $15,136 per month for an increase of $3,746 monthly. She said that breaks down to a blended rate of $16.25 per square foot, which she called “a very fair rate.”
“Other tenants pay over $30 per foot in the bight,” Wilbarger said.
Since all tenants at the bight have an annual 5 percent rent increase, had Pantelis signed the agreement in July as had been previously arranged, his base rent would have steadily risen to a high in 2016 of $23,482.26 per month, according to Wilbarger.
Wilbarger said rents in the bight are based upon the market rate, and calculating them is “an art and a science and is determined by what the market will bear.”
Bight Board Chairman Ray Capas said city ordinance requires the board to collect the market rate for properties on the Bight.
“You don't go to a textbook and pull out a rate and say that's it,” Capas said. “There's a detailed analysis of how they came up with the rate.”
The Waterfront Market is not alone in seeing the city raise its rent to market rate. Two years ago, the Schooner Wharf Bar saw its rent raised to more than $230,000 annually from $109,000.
The Waterfront Market's seafood manager, Curtis Knowles, said he and his co-workers are concerned about what the future holds.
“That unemployment line is going to be pretty long,” Knowles said. “And I don't know what all the restaurants are going to do either. This is going to affect 40 to 50 restaurants, at least.”
Knowles said he blames the city for Pantelis' decision to close.
“I think the city is messing with Buco and made the rent so high they're running people out of business. It's ridiculous,” Knowles said. “All they want is the money.”
Wilbarger said she knows some in the community are pointing accusing fingers at the Bight Board for the Waterfront Market's pending demise, but said she believes Pantelis got a fair shake.
“What more can you do for a guy?” Wilbarger asked. “We gave him almost 50 percent off market rate, eliminated the competition and gave him a 10-year deal.
“The city did everything they could. We cannot subsidize private enterprise.”
Capas said until Sept. 30, the door is still open for Pantelis to have “a change of heart” and decide to stay.
Neither Pantelis nor Stones returned repeated calls from the Keynoter and Keys Sunday seeking comments for this story.
