During last Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Richard Gilmour, a former mayor of Sebastian, expressed concerns about the deteriorating condition of the Hurricane Harbor building, a waterfront property acquired by the city 16 years ago that was once home to Crab E Bills.
In response, City Manager Brian Benton provided an update on the city’s efforts to address Hurricane Harbor’s condition. “Staff is currently still actively working on preparing a presentation to come back to council on what we’re going to recommend and allow the council to decide,” and which direction going forward, Benton said.
Benton noted that two staff members recently attended a historic building conference in St. Augustine to connect with experts, including historical building architects, to assess the building.
Although many longtime residents consider the Hurricane Harbor building historic, it is not officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“One of the hardest things to find is historical building architects and people that will come and look at the facility and give us their opinion on what we can salvage and what can be done,” he added.
Addressing the council, Gilmour reflected on his tenure as mayor when the city secured a $2 million grant to purchase the entire Hurricane Harbor property, describing the acquisition as a “wonderful thing” that has since been neglected.
Gilmour expressed sadness over the current state of the building, which once housed Crab E Bill’s, a fish market and eatery.
“The city did not keep its faith in maintaining that building,” he alleges, pointing to poor maintenance decisions, including the application of foam on the roof instead of a proper repair. He acknowledged sharing some responsibility, having trusted a former city manager’s decision during his time on the council but stressed that the approach was inadequate.
Gilmour criticized the city’s broader approach to property maintenance, suggesting that, unlike private property owners who set aside funds for upkeep, the city fails to allocate sufficient resources for capital improvements. “When we take rent in from the renters that rent our homes, we put aside money for maintenance,” he said. “Evidently, cities don’t do that. Why? I don’t know.”
Meanwhile, Benton explained that they’re still checking the building’s condition. A roofer is looking at the roof, and independent engineers have already evaluated the structure.
Benton pointed out problems with building codes, especially the “50% rule.” This rule says that if major repairs are needed, the building must meet current flood elevation standards, which means raising the entire structure, making renovations more expensive and complicated.
“There’s a lot of things that are being worked on with that,” Benton said. “I just don’t want to bring something back until we have all the full details and can accurately give figures on what the cost to work on that building would be.”
Another challenge in preserving the building is its piecemeal construction over the past century as a warehouse, auto garage, restaurant, and fish market, which makes preservation difficult and could significantly increase costs for taxpayers.
The entire city council hopes to preserve the building if feasible, but if not, other options are available. Before the city acquired the property through the Stan Mayfield Working Waterfront grant, the building sat neglected for years, overgrown with vegetation and in complete disarray.
Preserving the building could cost millions more than constructing a new facility due to its age. Councilman Ed Dodd once stated that, if necessary, he would prefer the city preserve as much of the original structure as possible while surrounding it with a new structure resembling the original.
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