ST. PETERSBURG — Eighteen months after Hurricane Helene tore through the fishing pier at Jungle Prada de Narvaez Park, the structure still stands in Boca Ciega Bay — closed, deteriorating and untouched.
Most of south Pinellas County has lagged. Fort De Soto’s Bay Pier, damaged by the same storm, will not finish construction until the fall. Jungle Prada has no concrete rebuild plan.
North Pinellas moved faster. Safety Harbor is running electrical conduit on its new pier. Dunedin has a contract, a state appropriation and a year-end completion date. Clearwater’s Pier 60 partially reopened on Labor Day. Even Pass-a-Grille’s 123-year-old Merry Pier bait shack got a unanimous vote to restore it.
At Jungle Prada, the wrecking crew is coming.
The City Council on April 16 approved a $1.4 million contract with Biltmore Construction Co. to demolish the roughly 100-foot wooden pier at the end of Elbow Lane, the only over-water public access point on the west side of St. Petersburg. The item passed on the consent agenda without discussion. A replacement proposal, the agenda states, will come “at a later date.”
There is no clear date. There is no funding source identified. There is no commitment to rebuild at the original length.
District 1 City Council member Copley Gerdes, whose district includes the pier, and Parks Director Mike Jefferis did not respond to questions via email.
Five neighborhood associations say the lack of a detailed plan is not good enough.
“A smaller structure is an unacceptable option for us,” said Juliana Fisher, president of the Jungle Prada Neighborhood Association. She leads a coalition that also includes the Jungle Terrace Civic Association, Azalea Neighborhood Association, Holiday Park Neighborhood Association and Crossroads Neighborhood Association.
“We are asking and hoping to be involved to help ensure we can secure external funding and be integral parts of bringing the full-size pier back to the city,” Fisher said.
A dock here since 1917
A dock has stood at the site since at least 1917, according to David Anderson, board president of Sacred Lands Preservation & Education, which operates on private land adjacent to the park. The pier was in place by December 1924, when developer Walter P. Fuller opened the Jungle Prado building — now the Jungle Prada Tavern — overlooking the bay. The structure was last rebuilt in 2007.
The pier sits next to one of the region’s most historically significant sites. The Jungle Prada Site, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, was part of a Tocobaga village that thrived along Boca Ciega Bay for at least 1,000 years, Anderson said. A shell mound on the property measures 900 feet long, 300 feet wide and 23 feet tall. It is also where Spanish explorer Panfilo de Narvaez is believed to have landed in April 1528 — a 500th anniversary Sacred Lands is already building toward with a Smithsonian traveling exhibit in 2027 and quincentennial programming in 2028.
The pier itself was a gathering place for generations — fishing, sunset watching, holiday fireworks. Fisher described it as one of the busiest public waterfront spaces on the west side.
North Pinellas moved
In Safety Harbor, the Fire Marshal Dick Brock Memorial Pier was damaged by Hurricane Debby in August 2024 and destroyed weeks later by Helene. The city had been designing a replacement since 2022 and had plans in hand.
The City Commission approved a $2.7 million contract with Shoreline Foundation Inc. on May 19, 2025, and construction began in July. Safety Harbor submitted a $1.14 million state appropriation request in December 2024 and filed for FEMA reimbursement. Mayor Joe Ayoub said the help could take a year or two, but the city moved forward with its own money.
Safety Harbor rebuilt within the existing parcel to avoid triggering additional state and federal approvals, including a new submerged land lease. By using elements of the previously approved design and location, the city secured permits more quickly — the same strategic concern the Jungle Prada coalition has raised about demolishing the pier before a replacement is planned.
In Dunedin, the City Commission awarded a $1.7 million contract to On-Point Contracting Co. on Jan. 8 to rebuild its fishing pier as part of a broader, larger marina project. The city secured a $1.5 million state appropriation and expects $1.7 million in delayed FEMA reimbursement. Completion is expected by year’s end.
Clearwater’s Pier 60 partially reopened on Labor Day after the City Council approved $313,575 in repairs. The far end remains closed pending permanent storm-hardening. In Pass-a-Grille, St. Pete Beach commissioners unanimously voted to restore the Merry Pier Bait Shack for more than $144,000.
“This is something that brings our community together,” Commissioner Jon Maldonado said of the bait shack. “It is a focal point.”
At Jungle Prada, the city solicited demolition bids in January 2025. Nothing happened. Biltmore Construction was engaged under a pre-existing continuing services contract on March 12 — 17 months after the storm — for $13,254 in preconstruction services. The council approved the $1.4 million demolition on April 16.
Where the $1.4 million goes
The agenda item details a guaranteed maximum price of $1.4 million from Biltmore Construction and a total project cost of roughly $1.5 million including prior consultant and engineering costs.
The demolition itself is budgeted at $367,565. The contract includes a $551,825 contingency — roughly 150% of the demolition cost — plus $150,231 in personnel costs, $105,034 for concrete removal, $25,000 for environmental monitoring and $117,454 in overhead and profit.
The money comes from the city’s Disaster Short Term Financing 2025 Fund. The agenda states that FEMA reimbursement “will be requested,” though Gerdes told Bay News 9 last week that the city has filed a FEMA claim and is awaiting a determination. He said the agency valued replacing the existing wooden structure at more than $5 million.
Gerdes told the St. Pete Catalyst last week that money for a rebuild would almost certainly come at the expense of another project and that the Parks and Recreation capital improvement plan is stretched to the limit.
‘We would rather them not rush’
Fisher and John Hoke, president of the Jungle Terrace Civic Association, first met with Gerdes on Dec. 16, 2025 — nearly 15 months after the storm. Fisher said they were told the pier might not be rebuilt at all, and if it was, the city was considering a smaller structure, possibly an observation deck.
The explanation then, Fisher said, was twofold: a federal permit from the Army Corps of Engineers that was expected to be difficult to obtain, and the city’s budget deficit. The permitting issue now appears resolved. The April 16 agenda item states permits have been secured.
The coalition is researching federal, state, environmental and historic preservation grants. Fisher said volunteers are pursuing contact with U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s office, following the Dunedin model.
“We are encouraged by council member Gerdes’ messaging that the pier is his No. 1 priority,” Fisher said. “We are concerned about the lack of funds requested in the FY2027 budget process.”
Fisher said she would prefer the city not set a demolition date until there is a clear path to a replacement. Safety Harbor’s strategy — rebuilding within the existing parcel to preserve prior permits and avoid a new submerged land lease — is the flexibility St. Petersburg may lose if the Jungle Prada pier comes down first.
Gerdes told Bay News 9 last week that a rebuild is coming. “There’s going to be a pier on the west side of St. Petersburg. Unequivocally,” he said.
He said he wants the replacement built in concrete rather than wood to withstand future hurricanes, and that an RFP will eventually go out. He did not give a timeline.
In a letter to constituents this week, Gerdes wrote that he grew up on the west side and launched his boat from the Jungle Prada ramp countless times. “I know the importance of the Jungle Prada Pier,” he wrote, “and I will continue pushing, consistently and persistently, for its rebuilding.”
Gerdes and Jefferis are scheduled to meet with neighborhood association leaders May 5.
West side
The pattern repeats inside St. Petersburg’s own borders. The east side is home to the St. Pete Pier district, a 26-acre, $76 million waterfront park that opened in 2020. The west side’s only over-water public access has been closed for 18 months, and the city has now committed $1.4 million to remove it.
Western St. Petersburg has several thousand new residential units approved and in permitting over the next three to five years, according to the coalition’s analysis.
The demolition contract approved April 16 does not include a date to begin the rebuild.