Nautilus developer sues Lake Park over marina lease 
Please support our town this Wed Jan 7th @ 6:30pm @ Lake Park Town Hall, Park Ave, Lake Park

January 2, 2026

by

Joel Engelhardt

Forest Development says town is stalling to renegotiate 99-year lease of waterfront land; 2021 meetings may have violated Sunshine.

The once-warm relations that spawned a multimillion-dollar partnership between Forest Development and Lake Park to rebuild the town’s underperforming waterfront have gone into a deep chill entering the new year.

The agreement has drawn criticism from a group of increasingly vocal town residents, who object to Forest’s 99-year lease on town land, including boat-trailer parking lots, at the foot of its newly opened Nautilus 220 condos at U.S. 1 and Silver Beach Road. 

The lease gives Forest the right to build a hotel, restaurant and boat storage facility and to take over the town marina. It calls for Forest to pay $300,000 a year for 10 years plus $1.2 million up front.

A real estate consultant hired in November is reporting the property could be worth $1.3 million to $1.6 million a year. The report by Walter Duke + Partners, the lawsuit and the Sunshine Law memo are scheduled for discussion at 6:30 pm Wednesday at the next Town Commission meeting.  

That’s this coming Wednesday please try to attend this very important meeting, 

The link to the full article can be found @ www,stetnews.org

Thank you

Frank Katz