Beachgoers could soon be getting a new restaurant at Huntington Beach pier after years of delays, but some city council members are questioning whether the deal can move forward amid problems with the restaurant’s contract.
It’s a deal that’s largely stayed hidden since a previous city council opted to close the Lets Go Fishing stand and look for someone new to take up the space.
When former Mayor Keith Bohr came back to the city council last month to receive a $1.3 million bond for his pier project, which is designed to protect the city in case the project falls through according to city attorney Mike Vigliotta, several council members had questions about his timeline.
“The project’s been kind of stumbling along,” said Councilman Pat Burns. “The whole project’s kind of shaky on me.”
Councilman Chad Williams pitched the idea of not approving the bond and instead reassessing the pier deal as a whole, highlighting how they had not used the 15 months of rent abatement to get the restaurant built and raised concerns Bohr violated his own contract by waiting too long.
“We might be executing a term on a contract that might be in default,” Williams said at the council’s Jan. 20 meeting. “This project has been tied up since 2021 and the only revenue our city has received since 2021 is about $6,500.”
Councilman Don Kennedy said the city council needs to work to “not set a precedent that deadlines are kind of here for whatever they may be.”
“You’re rewarding bad behavior basically,” Kennedy said.
When city staff and several city committees recommended moving forward with Ruby’s Diner to run the stand in 2021, city council members at the time overrode their recommendation and opted to ask Bohr to open up a new restaurant there instead.
The restaurant was originally set to open in May 2022, but a host of delays with permits and documentation pushed the development back for years, according to Bohr.
“We share the city council’s frustration as to how long it has taken us to finally get to the place we are finally ready to pull permits,” Bohr said in a Wednesday evening statement. “We have had to work through three state agencies, OC Health Department and all the various City Departments. We never stopped working on this project.”
Despite the delays, there hasn’t been much public conversation about the contract since then – council members signed off on Bohr’s lease in Oct. 2024 without any discussion, approving it alongside a slate of other routine items on their consent calendar.
Between 2020 and 2022, Bohr donated $620 to then Councilmen Tony Strickland and $600 Dan Kalmick, along with $600 to then City Attorney Michael Gates according to campaign disclosures.
Councilman Butch Twining highlighted how the bond was the last piece Bohr needed to get moving on construction, and that he didn’t want to hold up the process anymore.
“I want Keith to get going so he can open up by the end of summer hopefully,” Twining said at the council’s Jan. 20 meeting. “He’s a respected member of this community and we’re sitting here holding him up … we hold all the cards for him to get started.”
Despite multiple council members raising red flags with the deal, Mayor Casey McKeon and Councilmembers Gracey Van Der Mark, Pat Burns and Twining still approved the bond on
Twining said if they want to reexamine the contract later, they will.
“This council is going to determine whether he’s in default or not,” Twining said. “Technically in writing you can say he is … but we’re going to be the final arbiters of this.”
At their following meeting on Feb. 3, Williams brought up a host of questions with the contract, highlighting how it was the “riskier” option back in 2021 and that it wasn’t discussed much after that.
In a Wednesday phone interview, Williams said the consent calendar – a portion of city council agendas containing multiple items that’s passed with a single vote – often holds critical municipal deals, like the pier proposal.
“That’s the place where multimillion dollar contracts are awarded and once in a generation leases are signed,” Williams said.
He also questioned whether the existing deal is good for the city, noting they only get $5,500 a month for some of the most valuable real estate in the city unless the restaurant makes over $2 million a year.
Under the lease agreement, Bohr’s restaurant can operate for nearly 50 years if he exercises all the lease extensions.
Bohr highlighted how his company is set to spend $1 million to build a “new restaurant compliant building,” and that if the city was willing to provide a building, they could pay more.
“The $5,500 is approximately 32% more than the City was previously receiving,” Bohr wrote. “If the City was providing us a restaurant compliant building we would have offered to pay significantly more rent.”
Bohr also said City Manager Travis Hopkins has “directed staff not to issue said permits,” and they are now waiting on him, a claim city staff did not respond to requests for comment on.
“We hope he releases them this week, we are excited to finally commence construction!”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.