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Maximo Seafood Shack being booted from prime spot on Boca Ciega Bay

 
Mary Jo Feeney and Beverly Graver, both of St. Petersburg, enjoy a beer at Maximo Seafood Shack on Saturday April 2, 2016, in St. Petersburg. Margaret Covello bought Maximo Seafood Shack five years ago. It's open Wednesdays through Sundays at Maximo Marina. The Marina is about to undergo a multimillion dollar renovation, and Covello has been told she has until August to get out. [


MONICA HERNDON   |   Times]
Mary Jo Feeney and Beverly Graver, both of St. Petersburg, enjoy a beer at Maximo Seafood Shack on Saturday April 2, 2016, in St. Petersburg. Margaret Covello bought Maximo Seafood Shack five years ago. It's open Wednesdays through Sundays at Maximo Marina. The Marina is about to undergo a multimillion dollar renovation, and Covello has been told she has until August to get out. [ MONICA HERNDON | Times]
Published April 5, 2016

Times Staff Writer

ST. PETERSBURG — Casual and homespun, Maximo Seafood Shack draws locals and out-of-towners by foot, car, bike and boat for such specialities as grouper sandwiches, smoked whitefish spread, crabs, clams and oysters.

Perched on a canal off Boca Ciega Bay, it's become known as a local gem. People also stop by for beer, wine and a glimpse of the sunset.

But that could end soon.

Margaret Covello, owner of the small, popular restaurant at 4801 37th St. S, says she's been given until Aug. 1 to move out.

She says her marching orders came from Maximo Marina, where her restaurant sits on the main dock. The marina is planning a multimillion-dollar makeover that when complete promises to be the largest covered slip facility on Florida's west coast, accommodating vessels up to 100 feet long.

The renovation means Covello's seafood shack is out, leaving her with nowhere to go.

"I've got my heart and soul wrapped up in this," she said.

Covello spread word of the shack's eviction via Facebook, saying she was "saddened and a bit shocked" by the news, since she had been told just months earlier that the marina's update wouldn't force her out, at least not soon.

Covello told the Tampa Bay Times that she had been assured that her restaurant, in the up-and-coming Skyway Marina District, could remain at its current location for about two years.

But Steven Fass, a principal with Bixby Bridge Capital, the Illinois-based owner of the marina off Boca Ciega Bay, disagreed.

"I never told her that she could stay for at least two years. I couldn't give her any timeline, as we were still gathering information about the renovation process," Fass said in an email early this week.

"Margaret has been aware for some time now that we intended to renovate the marina and that updated laws do not allow for her establishment on the dock."

Last Friday evening, a merry crowd, including families, sat at tables set up on the dock and inside the small indoor space with water views. Covello told her story at the back of the restaurant as she sat on one of the dozen or so giant coolers she uses to transport the local catch Maximo Seafood Shack sells.

"They're giving me four months to pick up and move," she said of the restaurant she's owned for five years.

Instead of the prime space she now occupies, she is being offered an empty, rundown, secluded warehouse on the marina property, Covello said. It would be like "starting all over again," she said.

General manager Lee Hicks of Island Global Yachting, the firm hired by Bixby Bridge Capital to run the marina, recently spoke of the facility's plans.

"We are going to get rid of all of the structures on the water, dredge and rebuild all the docks with the covers and put them back on," he said.

In her Facebook post, Covello said marina officials had "expressed their excitement about tearing down the marina and building a mega yacht facility, insisting that the community, the mayor and the city" support their plans.

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Saying that he felt "compelled to weigh in," Mayor Rick Kriseman responded that it was the first time he'd heard of the issue.

"While the City encourages and appreciates investments into our community, and especially into the Skyway Marina District, this is ultimately a private matter between the owners of the marina and the seafood shack," the mayor wrote, adding that the city's focus is on "building up small businesses, not tearing them down."

Neighborhood resident Robert Neff, who has been active in local issues, including the Pier, launched a petition to save Covello's restaurant.

"Twice a year I organize a sunset social there when the sunset is directly down the channel. I organize all the neighborhoods in the area and it is packed. So the Seafood Shack is more than just an eatery. It's a community hub," Neff said. "It's unique. It's not some fancy, frou-frou place."

"It's not your commercial chain," said Jack Lomax, a commercial ship captain who stepped away from other diners to praise the restaurant last Friday evening. "People come from all over."

Tom Ando, president of the Broadwater Civic Association, which represents one of the surrounding neighborhoods, said the marina's manager recently spoke at a Broadwater meeting.

"They understood how much the Seafood Shack means to us, but it's a business decision. It wasn't just that everybody loves the Seafood Shack and it's staying. It wasn't that simple. One of the things he indicated is that it couldn't stay where it's at," Ando said.

"The basic gist of what I see is, it's a big part of our community. Everyone would love to see it stay, but if it can't stay in the same place, something has to be figured out."

City Council member Steve Kornell, who helped to establish the Skyway Marina District, said he is encouraging the two sides to reach an agreement.

"I hope that if it doesn't work out with Maximo Marina, that Margaret finds another location nearby, because it is definitely an asset to the area," he said of the restaurant Visit St. Pete-Clearwater has called "one of St. Pete's best kept secrets."

"It's the type of place that gives you an identity," Kornell said.

Contact Waveney Ann Moore at wmoore@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2283. Follow @wmooretimes.