CLEARWATER — O’Keefe’s Tavern is leaving the corner it has occupied since 1961.
BayCare Health System has bought the property at 1219 S. Fort Harrison Ave., and the tavern will move to 1653 Gulf to Bay Blvd., the building Capogna’s Dugout occupied for 53 years until it closed in June.
O’Keefe’s plans to close in mid-August and reopen after about six weeks of renovations, according to an announcement from the family. No date has been set.
The sale also brings a change in ownership. Garth and Terri DuQuesnay are handing the business to Travis DuQuesnay and Jordan Bragg.
“This isn’t about creating a new O’Keefe’s — it’s about continuing the O’Keefe’s that generations of families have known and loved,” Travis DuQuesnay said in a statement.
The announcement did not say what BayCare intends to do with the site. Morton Plant Hospital, a BayCare facility, is a few blocks south.
The property has drawn interest for at least a year. In July 2025, the City Council committed $610,000 toward an 82-unit affordable housing complex proposed for the same address by Blue Sky Communities, operating as Blue Fort Harrison LLC. The money was the local match the developer needed to compete for federal low-income housing tax credits.
City records show the project would have set aside 12 units for households at 30% of area median income, 48 at 60%, 18 at 80% and four at 120%. Blue Sky submitted a nonbinding letter from BayCare exploring rental preference for the health system’s employees. The proposal outscored a competing 84-unit project on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, 90.83 to 82.5.
Final city approval depended on Blue Sky winning the tax credits. The Florida Housing Finance Corp. board approved its awards Jan. 30. Around the same time, O’Keefe’s told customers the sale had fallen through and it was staying.
Neither BayCare nor Blue Sky has said what happened to the housing plan.
Jordan Bragg said the family respects what the Capognas built.
“It’s an honor to continue O’Keefe’s story in a place that already means so much to the Clearwater community,” he said in a statement.
O’Keefe’s opened in 1961 as a tap room run by William “Bill” O’Keefe. It became a hangout for members of the Outlaws. O’Keefe died in 1969, and Joe Smith bought the place, remodeling and adding the Cedar Room after a car crashed into the building. Smith sold it in 1980 to Tony and Garth DuQuesnay. Tony DuQuesnay died in 2005. Executive chef Mike Lane has run the kitchen since 1978.
Art and Margie Capogna opened the Dugout on Gulf to Bay in March 1973 after moving down from Michigan. It seated nearly 300 across two dining rooms. Hurricanes Helene and Milton knocked out the power in the fall of 2024 and ruined thousands of dollars in food and equipment. The family said it would close for good, then reopened in the spring of 2025 with former Monty’s Pizzeria owner Sean Stoffel as a partner. Capogna’s closed June 26.
Article updated Aug. 12 to include statement from O’Keefe’s Tavern and BayCare.