SYMPHONY INTERESTED IN RESTAURANT SITE NEAR SHELL
Group one of several looking at options for Joe’s Crab Shack
The Port of San Diego’s plan to redevelop the Joe’s Crab Shack restaurant near the bay has drawn the interest of the San Diego Symphony, which operates the nearby Rady Shell concert venue.
While port officials last month revealed that eight operators had submitted proposals for a new restaurant concept to take the place of the longstanding Crab Shack, the agency would not disclose the names of the interested parties, saying only that they included some well-known national operators in addition to restaurateurs popular in San Diego and Southern California.
The symphony’s interest in the site, however, came to light in a published agenda for a closed session meeting Tuesday of port commissioners who were scheduled to discuss “price and terms” for more than 53,000 square feet of tidelands and water area located at 525 E. Harbor Drive, where Joe’s Crab Shack is located.
Negotiating parties for the closed-door session were listed as the San Diego Symphony Orchestra Association and Free Range Holdings LLC, which is affiliated with a Texas-based restaurant group. Port commissioners during its regularly scheduled public meeting Tuesday afternoon said there was nothing to report out of their earlier closed session.
It’s unclear as to whether the port’s staff has narrowed down the interested parties to just those two entities. Port spokeswoman Brianne Page said negotiations for the Crab Shack site remain confidential, “and we cannot disclose whether or not other parties not listed on the closed session agenda are still under consideration.”
The Crab Shack is the original home of the San Diego Rowing Club, a designated historic site that found new life as a Chart House restaurant in the early 1980s and later transitioned to the cur
rent restaurant.
Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer, who is credited with helping transform the long envisioned Rady Shell at Jacobs Park into a reality, confirmed that her nonprofit does have an interest in the Crab Shack site. The popular outdoor concert venue made its debut in 2021.
“This is still really early stages, but given that it is very much part of the area contiguous to the area we occupy, it seemed worth considering,” Gilmer said of the restaurant location. “It just seems a natural connection.”
It is still early, Gilmer says, to discuss how the symphony might use the former Rowing Club site, although it would be for culinary purposes that could potentially supplement the food and beverage offerings already at the Rady Shell site. The Shell already offers a relatively broad culinary program known as The Shell Provisions, which includes menu offerings from a number of local sources, including
Urban Kitchen, Biga, Lola 55, Achilles Coffee, and Kitchens for Good. There is also a fine dining option provided by celebrity Chef Richard Blais, formerly of Juniper & Ivy in Little Italy.
“Our motivation to be considered is to amplify what we do now and make sure it’s in partnership with the ebb and flow of our activities at the Shell,” Gilmer said. “We
already have a great relationship with the restaurateurs and Kitchens for Good and would love to use our imagination for how we could expand and make this work for our patrons.”
A public relations representative for FreeRange Concepts, the other entity involved in closed-session discussions on Tuesday, said the ownership does not wish to comment at this time. The restaurant group operates multiple restaurants in Dallasand Austin, Texas. The agenda listed the cofounders, Kyle Noonan and Josh Sepkowitz, as part of the negotiating team for the business.
Port officials began talking to Joe’s Crab Shack a year before its lease was to expire in October 2022 and at that time advised the owner that the restaurant’s operations were falling short of the site’s potential to bring in more revenue. A broker hired by the port to drum up interest in the site, Allison Campbell of Retail Insite, has previously acknowledged that the restaurant site is challenging given that it is not easily seen from the road. However, it does benefit from considerable pedestrian traffic because of its proximity to the Rady Shell.
“The Shell is such a jewel for San Diego and also such a great asset for Joe’s Crab Shack,” Campbell told the Union-Tribune last month, “so I think that resonated, but also everything else that is going on downtown.”