Berth 55 Businesses to Remain Open...For Now

The Berth 55 Fish Market & Seafood Deli is on solid ground again after an order to vacate the property was set aside by the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners earlier this week, albeit temporarily.

The move spares the Maeharas family-operated restaurant, along with Long Beach Sportfishing vessels and about a dozen other small businesses who sublease from them, the need to relocate by October 16 per a 180-day notice given back in April, according to a statement from the Port of Long Beach.

However, while the tenants of more than four decades are safe for now, Berth 55 remains a proposed future site of a fireboat and station, said Susan E. Anderson Wise, President of the Board of Harbor Commissioners in a statement.

“We will do an environmental analysis of the proposal for a new fire and security center at the Berth 55 site,” said Wise. “In the meantime, the 180-day notice has been rescinded and the restaurant and sport-fishing vessels can stay.”

Located in the rear of the channel, Berth 55 is the future location of the Long Beach Fire Department Station No. 20, which is being relocated because it’s in the way of a $1 billion Gerald Desmond Bridge construction project upcoming in 2013.

The new station will also house a facility for the Long Beach Police Department to use, according to a statement by the Port.

On a month-to month lease since 2008, Berth 55 Fish Market & Seafood Deli was aware that the site was being considered other purposes for quite some time, Port officials said in a statement, although, that exact date may be under some dispute, according to a previous Patch article, route: {:controller=>"articles", :action=>"show", :id=>"vice-mayor-garcia-asks-the-port-to-seek-compromise-with-the-berth-55-community"} --> by Philip Friedman.

Also a source of contention is the planned placement of the fire boat in a non-wake zone, as reported by Friedman in a yet another