HUNTINGTON BEACH : City to Use Bonds for Pier Diner, Shops

The City Council has voted to spend $1 million to build a two-story Ruby’s Diner on the new pier, as well as a coffee shop and a bait and tackle store.

The city will use bonds that had been issued to build a parking structure at the north side of the pier. Officials scrapped plans to build the parking structure when the pier was closed in 1988, but the bonds remain available.

Ruby’s, which operates restaurants on the Seal Beach and Newport Beach piers, has agreed to pay minimum annual lease payments of $90,000 for two years, enough to cover the costs of paying off the bonds, officials said.

After that the restaurant will pay the city $100,000 annually. The bait and tackle shop will pay a minimum annual rent of $20,000, according to officials.

Originally, the Ruby’s Restaurant Group of Newport Beach proposed contributing $600,000 for construction of the pier buildings in exchange for free rent for six years. But restaurant officials said they rescinded the offer because the schedule for construction lagged and investors decided to put their money elsewhere.

The City Council selected Ruby’s as the pier restaurant in August, 1990.

Construction is expected to begin next summer and be ready by summer, 1994.

In addition to the bond money, the city expects to receive $295,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to defray costs of restaurant construction.

The previous End of the Pier Restaurant tumbled into the ocean during a severe storm in January, 1988. The pier was closed in July of that year when engineers deemed it unsafe.