Lease extension would allow Snook Haven on Myakka River to remain open through April 2025

Snook Haven, the popular Old Florida restaurant on the Myakka River, may continue in its current incarnation through April 30, 2025, providing the Sarasota County Commission approves a lease extension with Venice Pier Group  at its March 19 meeting.

The county is still slated to build a new concession area and reconfigure the popular 2.5-acre park site at 5000 E. Venice Ave., but approvals on the project are running behind schedule.

The contract is due to expire after March 31, which is also Easter Sunday.

Justin Pachota, president of the Venice Pier Group, said the proposed extension would allow him to host the Myakka River Blues Festival on May 27.

“The goal with the current extension we’re or right now was to give us through Easter,” Pachota said. “Easter next year is April 20, so it gives us the remainder of that month, too – nice and clean, no prorated rent, the whole month.”

Why the delay in construction of the new Snook Haven facility?

Sarasota County still plans to demolish the existing restaurant – which was severely flooded by Hurricane Ian – and replace it with a new 1,500-square-foot food concession building and an open-air pavilion.

Those plans are designed to maximize views of the Myakka River, designated a Wild and Scenic River by the state in 1985.

Sarasota County Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Director Nicole Rissler said via email that the plan is still under design and permitting, with construction anticipated to begin May 1, 2025.

“The project has not been postponed; it is just running further behind in scheduling than we had originally anticipated,” she wrote. “This extension allows the community to continue to enjoy the services and amenities they are accustomed to at Snook Haven while design and permitting is completed.”

What would the extension mean for Snook Haven?

Pachota said the biggest impact would be on staff retention and hiring.

“It’s hard to take a job where you know it’s going to end three-quarters of the way through the season, so now, if I have to do any hiring I can tell them all ‘Hey, you’re good through April 2025.’”

The other big thing is that Snook Haven can host one more Myakka River Blues Festival – a staple of Memorial Day weekend on the river since 2011.

Other park amenities, such as canoe rentals and the popular Logan River Tours pontoon boat rides can continue for another year, too.

Since Venice Pier Group’s contract will end on April 30, 2025, the concession business at the riverfront park will be up for bid.

Pachota said he expects to bid on that contract again, in hopes of continuing a relationship that also includes operation of Siesta Beach Eats at Siesta Public Beach.

Why does Sarasota County want to build a new facility at Snook Haven?

The main restaurant, which dates to 1958, had been subjected to the elements – including frequent river flooding – for several decades and located too close to the river.

The iconic venue has served as everything from a movie set to bootlegger outpost in the 1930s, before opening as a fish camp in 1948.

Sarasota County purchased the historic property for $2.6 million in March 2006. Venice Pier Group signed a lease to operate the food concession in 2013. That lease was set to expire in July 2023.

It was closed Sept. 27, 2022 in anticipation of Hurricane Ian and inundated after the storm by roughly four feet of river water.

Sarasota County and VPG negotiated a lease extension to allow the business to reopen and justify spending money on cleaning up the facility.

Snook Haven reopened that winter, with a modified menu.

The new concession facility is designed to preserve the aesthetic of the original restaurant though it will be pulled back from the river and have a perpendicular orientation to it.

The open-air pavilion will be parallel to the shoreline for the best views.

Snook Haven is also seen as a key part of Sarasota County’s ecotourism push and one that would allow canoeists and kayakers a nice rest stop between Myakka River State Park and Sen. Bob Johnson’s Landing, or even the Myakka State Forest.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota County may extend lease on Snook Haven through April 2025