since 2022 Anglin's Pier

Where

Anglin's Pier stands at 2 Commercial Boulevard in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, where the street ends at the beach. The town keeps its own pier FAQ and pier timeline, and there's more about the beach around it on the Lauderdale-by-the-Sea page.

Who owns it

The pier is privately owned, one of the few privately owned piers in the state, and the town doesn't plan to buy it. The owner is Spiro Marchelos. The pier opened in 1963 and is named for Melvin Anglin, the town's first mayor.

What happened

The damage goes back to Hurricane Irma in September 2017. Then, in November 2022, storms damaged the east half of the structure. The town's building official posted the pier as unsafe and ordered it closed, the electricity was cut, and a permit that had already been issued became null and void. The restaurant and the bait shop stayed open.

The collapse came on the night of 9 November 2022. Marchelos told the Sun Sentinel it happened at about 9:45 p.m., and described a wave of over 25 feet at high tide.

Fines are piling up at $200 a day. By the 14 April 2026 commission meeting, as the New Pelican reported it on 21 April, the total had reached $375,000, and a full replacement was put at about $20 million. The town itself gives only the daily rate, not a running total or a construction price.

Where it stands

The pier is closed to the public. The only people allowed on it are those working for the owner to gather information for building applications, and the owner, or a representative, has to appear at the town's Special Magistrate hearings about every three months.

Geotechnical borings were finished in January 2026, and design and engineering coordination started in February 2026. An Army Corps permit, SAJ 1993-30014, was due to expire on 14 March 2026. The steps planned for April and May 2026 are still marked as anticipated, the last one for the year is a September status update to the magistrate, and as of 16 October 2026 there's still no reopening date.

A rebuild needs permits from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Army Corps of Engineers, Broward County, and the town. The environmental permitting the owner has started can take up to two years before any repair work begins.

What is open

Anglin's Beach Café, at the foot of the pier, is open. The reef off this beach is still there; you just swim out to it now instead of walking the pier. Gold Coast Scuba is up the street at 259 Commercial Blvd, Suite 2. If you want to walk out over the ocean, the open pier on this stretch of coast is the Pompano Beach Pier, on the beach strip.

Current as of 16 October 2026.