Mallory Square restaurant delayed again

 

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

Despite being in the works for five years, members of the Key West Development Review Commission (DRC) have told the developer of a proposed new restaurant at Mallory Square that more information is needed before the much-delayed project can move ahead.

 

 

Key West City Planner Thaddeus Cohen said the restaurant developer, Tropical Soup Corp., presented a conceptual design to the DRC on April 23 that wasn’t detailed enough.

 

 

“From the drawings presented to the commission, there is still information needed for us to ensure it is compatible to other structures. For HARC (Historic Architecture Review Commission) to review, the drawings need to have more detail,” Cohen said.

 

 

Tropical Soup is headed by Joe Walsh, who won the bid five years ago to develop the city-owned waterfront property on the corner of Mallory Square. Walsh and his wife operate several other restaurants in Key West, including Jack Flats, Caroline’s, Red Fish Blue Fish, and Mangoes.

 

 

The DRC is the first step in the city’s construction project approval process. The DRC is comprised of Key West engineering, public service and planning department members who look at a project’s proposed plans to ensure it conforms to engineering, utilities, planning, and fire and police requirements.

 

 

Walsh and his team faced an array of challenges before even getting to the DRC. First they had to win the bid in 2010, which proposed to build a new restaurant on the location of a previous eatery that had closed six years previously. But the next-door Westin Resort sued over Walsh’s first design, which called for a two-story building that the hotel owners feared would block the water view of its guests. Although Walsh won in court, the Key West City Commission rejected the two-story building plan in 2013. Walsh then presented a smaller, one-story design measuring just under 3,500 square feet with 150 seats on April 1 of this year.

 

 

The five-year delay has frustrated some city commissioners, who discussed the project at their April 7 meeting. Commissioner Jimmy Weekley asked whether the project should be re-bid, given the delays. And Commissioner Mark Rossi complained that the city is losing tens of thousands of dollars in rent.

“The city has lost a tremendous amount of money up there,” he said.

 

 

The previous pizza restaurant was paying the city approximately $60,000 a year in rent. Walsh has estimated he will be paying more than $300,000 a year in rent to the city once the restaurant opens.

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