Can Landmark Floridapier Restaurants be rebuilt after the Hurricane? it’s complicated.

The Rod & Reel Pier has reopened on Anna Maria Island after being destroyed by a hurricane, but is in a new location.

Oliver Lemke, who bought the landmark restaurant a year before Hurricane Helen and Milton destroyed it, said he plans to revive the Rod & Reel at Holmes Beach.

Remke has not revealed the opening date for the new restaurant location in the home in front of the old Hamburg Schnitzelhaus restaurant, which closed in November.

Will the original location be rebuilt?

“What we’re planning in this new location is to give people the same thing they had on the pier, except obviously the pier,” Remke said. “We don’t have water. There are no old buildings. But all the other interiors are very similar. The staff are the same, the food, beer and drinks are the same.”

Remke said he was working to rebuild the pier at the northern tip of Anna Maria Island. Part of that process was to launch GoFundMe, following Helen in October. As of Wednesday, Lemke had raised nearly $100,000 of its $300,000 target. After Milton caused further damage, both numbers are far from the estimated amount needed to rebuild the jetty.

“We can’t say (any) numbers at this point, but it’s going to be well over these $300,000,” Lemke said. “We’re talking about millions, and obviously (fundraisers) will bring just a little bit of what we need. And unfortunately, we can’t get government help. We didn’t have insurance.

Remke said he is using GoFundMe’s fundraising efforts, bank loans and income from restaurants he owns in Germany.

“We are determined to rebuild the rod and reel pier, but we cannot do it alone,” the online fundraiser said.

Iconic restaurant

Mark Short, Mayor of Anna Maria, said everyone wants to see the rod and reel pier back.

“It’s symbolic,” Short said. “You’re thinking about the island and it, the pier and Bridge Street in our city. So it’s all that we have on the whole island, even something similar to what was here and now. And people want to get it back.

But first, Remke needs to clear some hurdles. In addition to raising enough money to rebuild the pier, Remke will also require permission from agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

“Their projects go beyond open water, so they must first get permission and approval for rebuilding the pier,” Short said.

Short said research from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee may also be needed.

“There’s a process where you have to run with those agencies first. Sign off to them and give them a green light to rebuild their pier,” Short said. “Then once everything’s done, they’ll come to the city for the proper permitting permission they need from a city standpoint.”

The city’s process does not require special committee approval. It will become a normal construction project through the Anna Maria Building Division, Short said.

Remke said they had already started the permitting process and they were going to do something about repairing the embankment.

How long does it take?

Remke said he had never heard of anything that would make it impossible to rebuild the rod and reel pier.

“Now that’s what happens, I just can’t say,” Lemke said. “It’s not an if, when.”

The exact timetable is unknown to rebuild the original Rod & Reel Pier location, but the reconstruction of Anna Maria City Piers, which was also damaged by Helen and Milton, is expected to begin soon this fall.

After Helen’s storm surge weakened Milton’s pier to destroy Milton, the enormous strip of the passageway connecting the city’s pier building to the Moat Marine Science Education and Outreach Centre disappeared, Short said at the Anna Maria City Commission Meeting on March 27.

Short said the city received permission from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in early January.

Short said the city committee would vote on whether to approve “a vendor to destroy anything still in the water that needs to be removed.” He added that city officials will try to rebuild the passageway during that time.

Meanwhile, hurricane season begins on June 1st.

“We don’t just throw a monkey wrench into everything,” he crosses his fingers,” Short said.