On the morning of October 8, inspectors from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection walked the construction trestle beside the new Flagler Beach pier in a steady, light rain. City Manager Dale Martin walked with them. Below, about a dozen surfers worked the waves. Some of them were wading within a few feet of the new concrete pylons, which is against the rules, and nobody stopped them. According to FlaglerLive's account of that inspection, Guy Weeks, who led the DEP team, looked over the structure and said, "Looks really nice."
What those inspectors saw was more than a replacement for the wooden pier first built in 1928, once the second-oldest in Florida after the 1925 Daytona Beach pier. The city commission has also been redrawing what the pier is for. Its direction so far is to stop treating the pier as a small city business with a ticket booth and a bait counter and to run it as a free public promenade. The cost of running it hasn't gone away, and the money question has moved a few blocks inland.
The Pier Used to Be a Small Business That Lost Money
People who walked out on the old pier will remember paying to do it. The daily rate was $1.50, or $6 to fish. That gate brought in real money: $186,000 in 2016, even though Hurricane Matthew closed the pier for that year's last quarter, $163,000 in 2019, and about $200,000 in each of 2021 and 2022. Pier rentals added roughly $150,000 a year over the last three years the pier operated. The city-run bait shop had its best year in 2022 at $114,000, and before that it never reached six figures.
In its last two years the pier took in more than $1 million combined, and it still ran a deficit. Total expenses ran slightly higher than revenue, with salaries, benefits and insurance making up a large share. Insurance alone ran between $160,000 and $216,000 a year. The pier's last surplus came in 2017, and in 2022 it lost $58,000, as FlaglerLive reported from the city's own planning figures.
Those figures shaped what came next. At a commission workshop in late August, Mayor Patti King said that charging admission again "brings to me a list of added expenses," and added, "I'm not sure it's in the city's best interest." Commissioner James Sherman said the pier is "maybe something that should be free for everybody to enjoy." Commissioner Scott Spradley called the bait shop "definitely not a necessity" and described the rebuild as "the opportunity for a clean break" from city-run businesses.
Commission Chair Eric Cooley put the broader view this way:
"Let the market sort it out. If bait is a huge draw, then let there be thriving bait stores all around the city. But I would also point out that this is not just a fishing pier. This is a municipal pier for many, many other purposes other than just fishing."
What the Commission Has Sketched for Opening Day
None of the workshop directions were final when FlaglerLive reported them. The commission was setting out where each member stood. Even so, the outline is specific enough to show how a visit to the new pier would differ from the old one.
| The old pier | The commission's direction for the new pier | |
|---|---|---|
| Admission | $1.50 daily, $6 to fish | Free for at least the first year or two |
| Hours | 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., subject to feedback | |
| Bait shop at the entrance | City-run | None; the space goes to lifeguards |
| Pets | Not allowed, matching the beach rule between North 10th and South 10th Streets | |
| Fishing poles | One per angler to start | |
| Casting | No overhead casting | |
| Pier rentals | Offered | Strong support for bringing them back |
| Fish-cleaning stations | Provided |
The commission also discussed lightning detectors, clearer bans on sitting on the rails or jumping off the pier, and whether drones can be launched from the deck. Commissioners were ambivalent about drones, partly because some of them, Spradley among them, fly drones for photography.
The bait shop space shows the change most clearly. The old lifeguard station on the pier was a hut. As FlaglerLive reported from the workshop, Cooley said it was "a very wise choice" to move lifeguards into a weather-protected space with good visibility. Sherman suggested the space could also hold a police substation. The pier may also be covered by a separate proposal for about 30 surveillance cameras downtown, which the city was putting back out to bid.
A Structure Built for Lingering
The engineering backs up the commission's view that this is more than a fishing platform. The new pier is 800 feet of concrete topped with wood. Its pilings reach 80 to 125 feet down and are designed to withstand a 500-year storm. The deck sits 28 feet above sea level, 10 feet higher than the wooden pier it replaced.
At the October 8 inspection, Justin McKay, project manager for the contractor Vecellio & Grogan, listed what is going in under the deck. A potable water line will feed the fish-cleaning stations. Electrical lines run up both sides and bring power to every concrete post. Turtle-friendly step lights will light the walking surface. There will also be "some convenience receptacles located along the pier as well for people to charge their phones or whatever else they may need to do with them," McKay said, according to FlaglerLive.
The top layer is timber decking designed to break away in a catastrophic storm and take load off the concrete beneath. In early October, delivery of that decking was expected within days. Crews were to lay it over the following weeks, starting at the east end and working back toward the A-frame. When it's done, Flagler Beach will join 25 other concrete piers in Florida. Of the state's 35 fishing piers, only 10 wooden ones remain.
The money for the build came mostly from outside the city. The Federal Emergency Management Agency paid 75 percent of the $16 million project, and the state and the city split the rest. Martin said a $4.5 million state appropriation spared the city from drawing on its capital or general funds. That appropriation was more than the city needed for its share, and the city hopes to put the remainder toward refurbishing the area under the A-frame. That fits the city's direction from February, when it shelved the $2.6 million Beachwalk expansion and turned to refurbishing the A-frame and its bathrooms within the existing footprint.
The Fee Question Moves to the Parking Space
Dropping the pier fee doesn't take paid access off the table downtown. It moves the debate somewhere else. In May, the city began a procurement process for paid parking, and FlaglerLive reported that a program could start as early as 2027. At an August 11 workshop, commissioners heard presentations from four vendors: One Parking, Peninsula Parking, LAZ and Passport Labs. On September 10, the commission voted unanimously to have the city manager open preliminary discussions with LAZ Florida Parking.
That vote did not adopt paid parking or sign a vendor. Locations, hours and rates had not been set, and according to FlaglerLive the process could still end with no program at all.
Still, the two decisions came up together at the pier workshop. Commissioner R.J. Santore asked whether parking attendants could also enforce pier rules. "Even if I'm not a fan of the paid parking," Santore said, "it seems that if you have somebody there already going around charging for that, is it possible that they can enforce fishing and walking out on the pier?" The mayor also called the first year or two "our test years." She left room to revisit the pier's operations later, especially if a version of Beachwalk ever goes ahead.
Parking near the pier has been tight throughout construction. The June 2025 construction plan kept A1A traffic moving but removed parking on both sides of A1A between South 3rd and South 5th Streets. It also closed the boardwalk south of the pier entrance through South 5th Street.
Opening Dates Differ by Source
The date depends on which page you read. The city's pier page still lists the facility as closed and says it "will reopen January 2027." FlaglerLive's October report puts substantial completion in January and final completion in February, and says the pier "appears on course for its spring opening."
The two aren't far apart. January is when the structure should be largely finished. After the decking and utilities are in, Vecellio & Grogan still has to take down the steel-and-concrete trestle that carried its cranes. Weather is the main remaining risk to a February finish. Crews have to stop work when lightning is within a set distance, and cranes can't run in winds above 30 mph. The only significant delay so far came in July 2025, when sea turtles nested where the trestle was going and work paused for a few weeks.
"We haven't had any significant glitches, other than the slow start from the turtle nest," Martin said as he walked off the trestle, according to FlaglerLive. "We're excited to have it open."
The commission sets the opening-day rules, and the August directions were not final, so hours, pet access and the fishing limits could still change before spring.
If you own property near downtown Flagler Beach and want to understand how a free pier, possible paid parking and a refurbished A-frame could affect the blocks around A1A, The Cook Group can walk you through it before spring. Schedule a private consultation.
