Restaurant Operator for Pier Picked : Business: Eric Wachter plans to make move next summer. Council will vote on extending lease to 20 years or longer.

For years, Eric Wachter gazed out at California’s longest wooden pier and fancied he could see his own business, Eric Ericsson’s Fish Co., perched at the base of it.

On Friday, the city of Ventura picked a restaurant operator for the platform on the Ventura Pier, and Wachter’s wish came true.

“I’ve coveted that location for years,” said Wachter, who plans to move his Seaward Avenue restaurant to the pier sometime next summer. “It’s the natural place for a fish restaurant.”

The city’s selection caps months of anxious searching by the City Council and city staff members for the most sophisticated seafood restaurant available at the least cost to Ventura. Ventura planners originally mailed out more than 80 requests for proposals, alerting restaurateurs around the region that the city wanted a “new, upscale premier restaurant facility” for the only free-standing beachfront property available in the city.

Ultimately, four developers responded.

Even Wachter, with his visions of waterfront dining, decided not to apply. He said he just couldn’t afford the city’s conditions.

Ventura wanted the restaurateur to pay for the construction of the restaurant shell and all the interior decor and kitchen facilities. The eatery owner would then rent the creation from the city for 10 years, at which point the lease would be up for negotiation.

Eventually, council members selected Seattle businessman Hal Griffith’s restaurant, The Fisherman’s Galley, as their choice and began negotiating with the restaurateur. Since the 10-year lease clause is in the city’s charter, Griffith demanded that Ventura be flexible on other issues. Specifically, he wanted Ventura to enter into a partnership with him on the restaurant, assuming half the financial responsibility if the venture failed.

Negotiations with Griffith fell through last month, leading Ventura officials to rethink their approach.

On Monday, the council will vote on amending the city charter to extend a waterfront lease to 20 years or even longer. If the council approves the charter amendment, the issue will go to a citywide vote in November.

Additionally, city staff members say Ventura will cough up the money for the restaurant shell. If a ballot initiative fails and the lease is not renewed after 10 years, Ventura will buy out the unlucky restaurateur, city staff members now say.

Wachter said he thinks he got a great deal. This will be his second restaurant contract with Ventura--he will also own a third of the Pineapples restaurant planned for the nearby Ventura Promenade.

“I’m very excited,” he said. “I’m confident the charter will change. And now, what we’ve got is more a landlord-tenant type of relationship” than the previous proposal.

Others in town also think Wachter has a good bargain.

“I’m glad it’s somebody local,” said Sandy Smith, a planning commissioner and owner of The Rosarito Beach Cafe, who also applied for the spot in this latest round of competition. “But it seems now that Eric’s gotten (the Pineapples restaurant) and the pier, I hope at some point the city could consider some other people for projects.”

In addition to Smith, who submitted his proposal with Ed Warren, owner of Smokey’s Saloon & Dining Hall, Wachter also beat out the 1940s retro chain Ruby’s, and a partnership of Mike Wagner, owner of Andria’s Seafood restaurant at the Ventura Harbor Village, and John Zaruka, the owner of the Wedgewood Banquet Center at the Buenaventura Golf Course.

“Sure, I’m disappointed, but I hope (Wachter) does a great job,” Zaruka said.

Members of the restaurant selection committee--council members Gary Tuttle and Greg Carson, Planning Commissioner Ted Temple, and Shawn Atkisson, the manager of the Holiday Inn--said Wachter presented them with the most complete proposal and the one which was most economical for the city.

Even so, Ventura will probably put up about $700,000 of the cost of the restaurant, with Wachter contributing $300,000 or more toward its construction, said Bill Byerts, the city administrator in charge of the project.

Wachter said he plans to build a two-story restaurant, with family-style dining downstairs and a more casual, bistro-and-bar combination upstairs.

“We want to have more varied fare, and a little less expensive menu than we have now,” he said. “We want it to be a place people feel comfortable coming to frequently.”