When Will North Jetty's South Lot Reopen? The County Answered in a Snack Stand Bid

In late August, an anonymous questioner on the North Jetty Park concession solicitation asked Sarasota County something many people at the Venice Inlet have probably wondered too. Will the south side of the parking lot along the jetty waterway reopen to the public? By that person's estimate, roughly 50 to 100 spaces were still closed from hurricane damage.

The County answered on Aug. 26, 2026. The damaged areas of the park, grounds included, are "currently being evaluated and designed for restoration." The project is "still in the preliminary design/preconstruction phase," no construction schedule has been set, and the County "cannot provide a date for reopening the currently unavailable parking spaces at this time."

That answer is public because it was posted in the question-and-answer file for the concession solicitation. It also shows how the park is running this fall. The contract for who sells you a cold brew at 1000 S. Casey Key Road is moving on a firm calendar, and the asphalt beside the inlet is not.

Nine weeks from bid release to recommended award

The County's procurement portal lists the solicitation as RFP 262898MM, "North Jetty Park Concession Services", issued through Parks, Recreation, and Natural Resources. Here is how fast it has moved:

1. Aug. 17, 2026: Solicitation released.
2. Aug. 26: County answers the parking question and says there is no construction schedule.
3. Aug. 31, 10 a.m.: Optional pre-bid meeting held at the concession area.
4. Sept. 2: County posts answers from the pre-bid meeting and names the current operator.
5. Sept. 17, 2:30 p.m.: Proposals due.
6. Oct. 5: Notice of Action posted.
7. Oct. 19: Notice of Recommended Award posted.

In late October the portal still showed the solicitation as "award pending." The winning operator gets an initial three-year term with two possible one-year renewals. The job covers running the concession area, including food and beverage, and retail sales are allowed only with County approval.

So the food side has a deadline, a scoring process and a term that runs years ahead. The parking side, in the same document, has none of that.

What the grille is today, and what stays with the building

According to the County's Sept. 2 answer, the concession is run by Shark Tooth Beach Concessions/North Jetty Grille. Shark Tooth started on Nokomis Beach in 2016, when Justin and Ashley Bloomquist opened it as a partnership with the County, as the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that December.

The menu is easy to picture. Visit Sarasota's February 2026 roundup of beach concessions lists chicken and waffles, Philly cheesesteak and nachos. Drinks include draft and canned beer, mojitos, and two local cocktails called The Shark Bite and The Jetty Juice. The cold brew uses coffee roasted by Black Gold Coffee of Venice. The Shark Tooth website also lists beach tacos, snacks and ice cream.

The Q&A file shows how much of that experience belongs to the operator rather than the park. The County supplies the commercial kitchen hood, and the operator brings all other operational equipment at its own cost. The County added that the equipment the current operator uses "is not included with the concession area." The pavilion opened in 2014. The building and the hood stay with the park. Any new operator would have to bring its own equipment for everything else.

A few other contract rules shape the day-to-day:

• The operator may mark up to eight tables in the concession area as preferred seating. More tables outside that area need written County approval.
• Beach rental gear has to be stored within the designated concession area.
• No sales or delivery outside that area without written approval. A mobile delivery idea must be submitted at least 45 days before it would start.
• The County said it is open to new ideas for service zones, subject to its approval.

That last rule is the reason the recommended award could matter on an ordinary Saturday. The contract leaves room for a different layout and different services, as long as the County signs off.

The parking that sets the real limit

The County told bidders North Jetty Park has about 150 to 200 public parking spaces. Compare that with the anonymous questioner's estimate of 50 to 100 spaces still closed on the south side, and the missing share falls somewhere between a quarter and two-thirds of the lot, depending on which ends of the two ranges are right.

The County did not dispute that estimate. Asked again at the pre-bid meeting about a timeline for parking repairs, it repeated that the project is in preliminary design and has no construction schedule. Asked whether it had an estimated date for any U.S. Army Corps of Engineers work, the County said it had no information.

The park has been operating at partial capacity for a while. When it partly reopened on March 1, 2025, WWSB reported that the north and east lots were open, along with lifeguards and concessions. The County's North Jetty Park directory page lists hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Whoever wins the contract will be selling to whatever crowd fits in the north and east lots, for as long as the south side stays closed.

The same pattern at Nokomis Beach

Nokomis Beach Park, at 100 Casey Key Road, has lost parking too, and its schedule is just as loose. Here are the two parks side by side:

Visit Sarasota also lists a Shark Tooth food and beverage trolley that runs Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Nokomis Beach closure is tied to the North Casey Key Road reconstruction. In April 2025, the County announced that parts of the Nokomis Beach lot south of the playground, east of Casey Key Road, would close long-term as a construction staging area. The 200 block of South Casey Key Road would close starting April 28, and that closure was expected to last through fall 2027.

The most detailed published report on the road work is from October 2025. Your Observer described it as a phased repair of 0.53 miles. Phase one was seawall construction, with traffic cut to one lane around the work. Phase two would need a temporary road and was waiting on permits. The last phase would remove the temporary road and bulkhead and add stone riprap. That story projected the project would be done in March 2027. The County's fall 2027 date for the 200 block closure comes later than that, so the two dates may describe different pieces of the work. The phase and lane setup described a year ago may also have changed since.

The County's Nokomis Beach Park directory page still lists a concession, fishing pier, pavilion and restrooms, with hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Between the two parks, the beaches at each end of the Casey Key Road stretch are running with fewer parking spaces than they were built for. One shortage has a target date about a year out. The other has no date.

Drum circle nights, with less room to park

The best-known regular event on this stretch is the Nokomis Beach Drum Circle at Nokomis Public Beach, 100 Casey Key Road. A current event listing describes it as free and year-round. It meets Wednesdays and Saturdays, starting about two hours before sunset. Going by that schedule, the next gatherings after this post goes up would be Saturday, Nov. 7, and Wednesday, Nov. 11. Those dates come from the recurring pattern, not from separate announcements, and the listing suggests calling ahead.

Sunset comes earlier in November, so the drum circle starts earlier in the afternoon too. That puts it inside the hours the beach lots are already short of spaces. The North Jetty award should become final soon. The solicitation page is where the County will post it, and it is the one Nokomis beach decision this fall that has a deadline.

I've been watching the Casey Key Road parks for years, and I'm glad to share what I hear about the North Jetty award and the south lot as the County posts updates. If you live nearby and want to talk through how the beach construction affects your corner of Nokomis, reach out to Evan Weber. Let's Connect.