Shrimp Boat becoming rejuvenated St. Andrews' crown jewel

ST. ANDREWS - The St. Andrews district, which has been inching its way out of seediness for nearly a decade, could be right at the verge of finally reaching full-on funky quaintness.

Owner Loren Smith said this week his Shrimp Boat restaurant should be completed by summer, replacing a formerly blighted property with a waterfront complex where visitors can eat, buy fresh seafood and book chartered fishing trips.

The two-story restaurant, modeled after a 19th-century Cuban cigar factory, is expected to become a focal point for a neighborhood striving toward historic harbor stylings. It will join the Harbor Village condos and St. Andrews Marina as the largest finished projects in the district’s revival.

“St. Andrews has really come a long way,” said Craig Thurman, president of the St. Andrews Waterfront Partnership. “That’s the beauty of the Shrimp Boat. It’s continuing the outlook and focus we have.”

Many of the businesses in the neighborhood are owned by people who grew up there and still remember the way it was in the ’50s, before the decline.

They describe a pleasant waterfront area full of little shops, anchored by the original Shrimp Boat restaurant, which was built by Smith’s father, and surrounded by family homes. Fishing boats would tie up to the restaurant’s dock in the afternoons and unload the day’s catch, while neighbors gathered to watch.

“You couldn’t even drive down there in the afternoon because it was packed with people,” said native Ellen Mapelsden, a co-owner of the St. Andrews Coffee House.

But the following decades were not kind to the district, and by the late ’90s, it had come to resemble the old downtown’s derelict cousin. Fishing boats moved to Capt. Anderson’s Marina, the closed Shrimp Boat eventually was torn down, and a former Ramada Inn at the foot of Beck Avenue became a weekly motel that drew prostitutes and transients.

“When we opened up, it was a little scary,” Mapelsden said.

Slowly, it began to turn around, with the arrival of new businesses such as Uncle Ernie’s, the Captain’s Table and the coffee house. Coastal Community Bank got a face-lift, and the former Ramada Inn was torn down. Thurman credits those changes with helping to bring back St. Andrews.

The Waterfront Partnership continued it with a plan to improve the marina and Under the Oaks Park, and drew up design standards for building renovations and new construction that would stick to the historic aesthetic of the area: one- and two-story structures, stone and brick materials, large storefronts and flat roofs.

That sits well with Diane Rogers, a recent arrival on Beck Avenue. She moved her knick-knack shop, Fancy That, into a storefront last month.

“I wouldn’t want all new, shiny buildings,” she said.

To add to the historic harbor look, the group recently installed wiring for street lamps along two blocks of sidewalk on Beck Avenue and is planning to bring down the overhead power lines once the lamps arrive. This year also should see a $300,000 project to restore the 1920s-era Panama City Publishing building.

“That’s going to dramatically change the look of this core section,” said Nancy Wengel, program manager for the St. Andrews Waterfront Florida Program.

Shrimp Boat flair

Mapelsden lives in St. Andrews, not far from her coffeeshop. She said last week she also can see the effects of the renewal spilling over into the residential areas, where people are painting homes and fixing up yards.

“It’s like it’s been neglected and forgotten, and people are starting to care again,” she said. “It’s just neat to see some of the old stuff brought back.”

Not that St. Andrews has shed all its seediness just yet. Beck Avenue is still home to a strip club, and the occasional prostitute, as well as the county’s probation office. A dilapidated apartment building stands on one side of Beck, and a few blocks up on the other side is the shell of the old Copa Cabana motel, which Smith owns and plans to remodel.

But the rebuilt and improved Shrimp Boat could prove to be what St. Andrews needs to help put it over the top.

Smith said the building will have hardie board siding and columns painted to resemble pilings, giving it a wood-built Key West look, and St. Andrews memorabilia on the interior walls. The adjacent boat basin will house small yachts and a charter fishing fleet.

Inside will be the main restaurant and exposed kitchen, a sushi bar, a retail and wholesale fresh fish market, and a casual bar and grill, with a banquet hall upstairs.

“I think we’re going to see great improvement (in St. Andrews) very quickly once we open the doors,” Smith said. “The Shrimp Boat will be sort of a center of activity, as it used to be.

“It’s hard to say if we’re going to fit in,” he said. “But I think we’ll set the standard.”

Rogers grew up in Apalachicola and can remember coming to Panama City with her parents to shop and eat at the Shrimp Boat. She said last week she’s pleased to see Smith rebuilding.

“I think once it’s done, and they get all the parking set up, it’s really going to draw tourists,” she said. “This area is going to be famous for the restaurants.”

• Things To Do
• Movies
• Dining

• Nightlife
• Local Art