The owners of Silver Beach Pizza are interested in purchasing the train depot property that the restaurant occupies from the city of St. Joseph.
Silver Beach Pizza’s Tony Bertig told St. Joseph City Commissioners Monday the business has leased the property from the city for 19 years and has been more of a success than its founders ever expected. He asked commissioners to explore the idea of a sale so the business can operate below the bluff well into the future.
“We obviously don’t have any concrete numbers or anything,” Bertig said. “It’s just an idea. And if the city feels that it’s in your best interest and if we feel agreeable to the terms, it’s something that’s a possibility.”
St. Joseph City Manager John Hodgson told us Silver Beach Pizza rents from the city with one more seven-year option on its lease that would run from 2025 to 2032, meaning there are eight more years to go on the agreement. However, a city sale of the property to the restaurant is feasible.
“It’s a little bit of an unusual property in that the building was sold to the city in the 1980s as a piece of personal property, so kind of as a piece of equipment rather than owning the ground that it’s on because it’s located in a public right of way,” Hodgson said. “It’s located in a street, Vine Street. So, it’s certainly possible. There are some other ties to the building, like the Amtrak station that’s there. Under the deed under which the city acquired the building, Amtrak’s entitled to remain in the building and use the waiting room.”
Amtrak pays maintenance fees to the city for its use of the building. Also, Hodgson says the city pays a small lease to CSX Railroad for part of the property. All of that would have to be incorporated into any deal that would sell the building to Silver Beach Pizza.
The city commission’s properties committee will study the issue of a possible sale to Silver Beach Pizza. No timetable for a decision has been established.
