The New Pelican reported that Howard Goldberg, speaking as chair of the town's Chamber of Commerce, told the Lauderdale-by-the-Sea town commission this past April: "Residents and tourists used to flock downtown and to the pier. Now it is the eyesore of this whole community." He wasn't just venting. By his count, thirteen businesses on and around Commercial Boulevard had closed in the previous year.
That's the backdrop. Now here's what landed on the same half-mile of pavement a few weeks ago: a Miami-born smash burger chain called Skinny Louie signed a lease at 107A East Commercial Boulevard, just off the beach, in the heart of the town's commercial strip. Cohen Commercial Realty brokered the deal. No opening date yet. But the lease itself is the story, because of what sat in that storefront before it, and what that turnover says about which parts of this town are actually stuck and which ones aren't.
Two Clocks on One Street
Anglin's Pier has been closed since Hurricane Nicole tore out roughly 80 feet of it in November 2022. The pier is privately owned by Spiro Marchelos through an entity called Fisherman's Pier Inc., which means the town can fine and cajole but can't simply fix it. By this April's commission meeting, those fines had reached $375,000, accruing at $200 a day since the town ordered active repairs to resume. Marchelos told the commission that geotechnical borings are complete and the project is now in design and coordination. The most recent target reported by the town has the pier reopening in the summer of 2028, six years after the storm that shut it down, assuming no additional named storms hit the site before then.
Now look at what happened at 107A. Town filings show a conditional use permit filed in October 2025 for a Mid-Century Modern-style sign under the business name Burger Vibez, at the same address. Whatever became of that concept, it never opened, and less than a year later Skinny Louie had the lease. One clock on this street is measuring itself in years and hasn't moved since the storm. The other is measuring itself in months and just delivered a chain tenant.
A quick side by side makes the gap obvious:
- November 2022 – Hurricane Nicole collapses roughly 80 feet of Anglin's Pier
- August 2021 – Pier's Irma-era repair permits are finally approved, then voided again by the next storm
- October 2025 – A permit is filed for a business called Burger Vibez at 107A East Commercial Boulevard
- April 2026 – Pier fines reach $375,000; the town commission debates full replacement
- September 2026 – Skinny Louie signs the lease at 107A East Commercial Boulevard
Same street. Same few hundred feet. Completely different speed.
What a Burger Chain Doesn't Need From a Pier
Skinny Louie isn't a local one-off testing the water. It opened its first location in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood in November 2023, founded by Gonzalo Rubino and Matias Palloni. By this past summer it had grown to roughly ten locations across South Florida and New York, with a stated goal of reaching sixteen by the end of 2026. The same expansion push landed the chain a lease in downtown Fort Lauderdale on East Las Olas Boulevard and another at Dania Pointe. Lauderdale-by-the-Sea is one stop on a route the company is already running.
That matters for how residents should read the vacancy problem Goldberg described. A chain scaling at that pace isn't checking the pier's permitting timeline before it signs a lease. It's reading foot traffic, beach access, and rent, all of which exist on Commercial Boulevard with or without a functioning pier at the end of it. The businesses most exposed to the pier's absence are the smaller, independently owned shops that depended on pier-driven visitor traffic to fill slow weeks. The businesses filling the empty storefronts right now are the ones with enough capital to wait out a slow lease and open on their own schedule.
That's a different story than "the pier closed and the strip suffered." It's closer to: the pier closed, some smaller operators couldn't absorb the hit, and the space they left is now being taken by businesses whose model never depended on the pier in the first place.
The Businesses That Never Needed the Pier Anyway
Walk the rest of Commercial Boulevard and that pattern holds. At the western end, near the Intracoastal, Blue Moon Fish Co. still draws a wait for its Sunday brunch, prime rib carving station and all. Toward the ocean, Sea Watch on the Ocean has been serving the same regulars since 1974, generations of families requesting their table in the window-wrapped Captain's Room. LaSpada's Original Hoagies is still turning out the piled-high sandwiches that predate the sub shop chains that eventually copied the format. The mix of global spots along the strip, Uptown Keese's Greek and Mediterranean, Basilic Vietnamese Grill, Ciao Ammore Trattoria, and Mickey's Downtown, are all still running.
Even at the pier itself, the part that isn't structurally condemned keeps functioning. Anglin's Beach Café, right next to the closed pier deck, remains open. The town's own FAQ page confirms it. So the pier being fenced off hasn't shut down everything attached to it. It's shut down the pier.
The Town Isn't Waiting on the Pier to Fix Itself
The town's role in the pier's timeline is limited. At that same April commission meeting, Mayor Edmund Malkoon said the town doesn't have "skin in the game" when it comes to a structure it has never owned and can't compel its owner to rebuild on any faster timeline. That's a fair description of the legal reality, even if it frustrates residents who remember the pier as the town's anchor.
Meanwhile, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea keeps running its own separate calendar. Anglin's Square, the plaza built up during an earlier round of streetscape work, still hosts the town's holiday tree lighting, bimonthly dance lessons, live music, and beginner's yoga, all free, all happening whether or not the pier down the block has reopened. None of that programming depends on Marchelos getting a permit through the Army Corps of Engineers.
What This Means for the Next Walk Down Commercial Boulevard
The honest read on Commercial Boulevard right now isn't "pier closed, town struggling." It's two separate stories running on two separate timelines, tangled together only because they happen to share the same three or four blocks. One story is public, slow, and stuck behind federal and state permitting that has already outlasted a pandemic, three named storms, and at least one voided contract. The other is private, fast, and driven by companies that read a lease the way a resident reads a menu: quickly, and without much patience for whatever else is going on next door.
For anyone who already lives here, that's useful context the next time a storefront on the strip changes hands. The vacancy might have nothing to do with the pier. It might just mean the last tenant's concept didn't work, and the next one is already signed.
If you're watching how this corridor changes over the next year, whether that's the pier's next permitting update or the next lease along Commercial Boulevard, Lisa Stephenson tracks this stretch of town closely from just down the coast. Let's Connect if you want a read on what a specific block or building is actually worth right now, pier timeline included.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
