The construction of the new Anna Maria City Pier is currently in progress and is expected to be completed by December 2019. It seems that before the end of 2019, we will be walking around the famous Anna Maria City Pier again.
We are so excited about this great news!
The pier is very special to the people of our town. Jeannie Carraway, owner of home store Decor De France, reminisces on the days when she would take her son to the pier for some quality time. That was now about 20 years ago.
Many families share similar connections to our pier. They would visit just to walk around, or for a meal with their loved ones. It was also a popular location for family photo shoots. The view from the pier makes for the perfect photo. It attracted thousands of people each year. We are so happy that families will be able to share these experiences again.
Our historic pier was greatly damaged by Hurricane Irma in 2017. The city tore it down completely last June. The loss of the city pier has hurt our town. Anna Maria Commissioner, Brian Seymour, claims that local businesses have lost traffic of about 15-20%.
Seymour says that we all have long awaited the rebuilding of the pier. He claims they have faced many difficulties in the process. The mayor, city staff, and commissioners have worked very hard to allow it and we are so thankful.
According to Seymour the entire project of reconstruction, from scratch to completion, will cost around ??four and a half million dollars. We know this investment will be beneficial to the entire island and cannot wait to have our city pier up once again!
