Boat owners told to get out of downtown Fort Myers marina

Author: HALEY ZARCONE
Published: Updated:
marina
Downtown Fort Myers marina. CREDIT: WINK News

There are nine boats that have to go, but time is running out for boat owners at the Marina at Edison Ford.

The Phelan family, who lease the marina and Pinchers, did offer free boat slips for the boat owners to dock more than 100 miles away in Sarasota County.

Boat owners WINK News spoke with said they signed the lease hoping to drop their anchors in the marina indefinitely. One of the boat owners told WINK News they didn’t fully know what was going on but were asked to leave the marina.

On Wednesday, they and nine other boaters were told to sign on the dotted line and ship out as soon as possible.

The “Notice of lease termination” each boat owner was handed said, “Unfortunately, Pinchers Crab Shack of downtown Fort Myers Inc. has a dispute with its landlord as to boat slip rentals.” And, “Pinchers believes the landlord is incorrect. However, the landlord must seek a court ruling on the rentals, and in the meantime, we hereby notify you that we are terminating your boat slip lease, effective as of today.”

Each boater will be refunded their rent for the month of December but now has to find a new place to dock.

The Phelan family brand provided the statement seen below to WINK News on the situation.

“Because of ongoing issues with the landlord, we need to pause the leasing of our slips until the issues can be resolved. While this takes place, we are offering at no charge, complimentary dockage at slips we have at our Casey Key Marina for those 10 boat owners.”

The Marina at Edison Ford was one of the few marinas still operating in downtown Fort Myers. The Yacht Basin and Legacy Boat Harbor are still closed from Hurricane Ian.

However, one boat owner said moving their boat to another slip in a different county wasn’t an option. So they aren’t going to move the boat and instead wait to see what happens next.

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