The Funky Pelican doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. The popular beachside restaurant renewed its lease with the City of Flagler Beach for another 32 years on Thursday, poising them to stay in their current location through the year 2057.
Under their current lease, the Funky Pelican has three five-year extensions on top of the current three they were given to supplement their ten-year agreement. Should the restaurant continue exercising those options, they’d be there until 2037. This new extension adds on four more five-year extensions, bringing their potential tenure over three decades into the future.
No members of the public offered a comment on the Thursday agenda item. The four present City Commission members all approved the lease extension, leading to a unanimous vote. Only Scott Spradley did not participate, as he wasn’t in attendance Thursday.
Unlike most beach restaurants up and down SR-A1A in Flagler Beach, the Funky Pelican rents its location from the city directly. The building is adjacent to the Flagler Beach Fishing Pier, which is currently in the midst of a massive reconstruction approved after it was heavily damaged in 2022’s Hurricane Ian. The Funky Pelican continues to serve customers even with two massive cranes just feet away.
The Funky Pelican Looking Forward
The renewal of the Funky Pelican’s lease is conditional on a series of renovations to the building’s exterior. Those are expected to be completed in 2026. The changes will refresh the paint job and create new small tourist amenities outside the front doors.
The Funky Pelican’s rent is also increasing, though that isn’t an addition from this new extension. The original lease written by the Flagler Beach City Commission over a decade ago has the business’s rent going up by three percent each year. It started at $3,000 a month. It’s also required to pay three percent of its gross intake to the city once revenue surpasses $1 million.
Owner Raymond Barshay signed the original ten-year lease with the City of Flagler Beach in 2011. He’s already filed for building permits to execute the renovations incumbent upon him in his lease extension.
Chris Gollon is a Flagler County resident since 2004, as well as a staple of the local independent music scene and avid observer of Central Florida politics, arts, and recreation.
