Schooner Wharf Bar is set to get new owners for the first time in 40 years. The Lighted Boat Parade, the Minimal Regatta and the Open Air Art and Music Fair are coming along with the sale, because the city lease the bar operates under has provisions for keeping them going. On Wednesday, Oct. 14, the Key West Bight Management District Board voted unanimously to recommend handing the bar's lease from Paul and Evalena Worthington's company to Tidal Shift Ventures LLC. That company belongs to Jeff Sorg and Mike Croce, the managing partners of the Green Parrot and Half Shell Raw Bar.
The lease in question is the new 10-year agreement the CRA approved in July for the space at 202 William Street, and the buyers would take it on as written.
What the Bight Board sent up the chain
The Bight Board doesn't get the final word. According to the Key West Citizen's report on the vote, the lease assignment still needs final approval from the Caroline Street Corridor and Bahama Village Community Redevelopment Agency. Above the Fold points out that the CRA is the City Commission sitting as the redevelopment agency. The ownership change stays pending until that vote happens.
The staff paperwork reads like a landlord checking a tenant's references. In an Oct. 14 memo, Key West Senior Property Manager Gary Moreira recommended approving the assignment and wrote, "The proposed assignees are extremely well qualified." The same memo says Key West Seaport LLC, the current tenant, has met all of its financial and non-monetary obligations under this lease and earlier ones.
The Citizen also reported support from the public side of the room before the vote:
"I stand before you in full support of this item. It is a win/win for both parties." Capt. Kelly George, speaking to the Bight Board, as reported by the Key West Citizen
George, who said he knows both parties, also thanked the Worthingtons for their decades with the bar and for the annual events they helped start. The meeting documents didn't disclose a purchase price or a closing date.
A bar that began on a boat and built a calendar
The events matter in this sale because the bar grew up around them. Paul and Evalena Worthington arrived in Key West in 1984 and started the business in 1986 aboard the brigantine Diamante. According to Above the Fold, when the bar moved ashore, a diving board served as the bar top and a filing cabinet held the liquor.
That makeshift bar became the home base for about 30 events a year, according to the Bight Board, including the Minimal Regatta, Battle of the Bars and the Wreckers' Cup races. The lease those events now run under was approved by the CRA and is managed by the city's property staff.
Three traditions, named in writing
The new 10-year lease the CRA approved in July started Oct. 1, 2026 and runs through Sept. 30, 2036. Under the proposed assignment, Tidal Shift Ventures would take on that lease's rights and obligations as written, and the business would keep the Schooner Wharf Bar name.
Of the roughly 30 yearly events, the Citizen reports that the lease specifically addresses keeping three of them going: the Minimal Regatta, the Open Air Art and Music Fair and the Lighted Boat Parade. Events that use public areas still need city approval. Above the Fold described the expectation more broadly, saying the Minimal Regatta, Wreckers' Cup races and Battle of the Bars are expected to continue as terms of the transfer.
Here is how those traditions ran in 2026, according to the bar's own event pages. Dates for 2027 haven't been posted, so the 2026 dates show the usual season, not a confirmed schedule.
| Event | 2026 timing | Where and what |
|---|---|---|
| Wreckers' Cup | Jan. 25, Feb. 22, March 29, April 26 | A seven-mile, all-in-fun sailing race from Key West Harbor to Sand Key that reenacts the wrecking tradition |
| Open Air Art & Music Affair | March 7, 9:30 a.m. to midnight | Historic Seaport, with Florida Keys and visiting artists, crafts and musicians |
| Minimal Regatta | May 24 | Off 202 William St., homemade plywood-and-duct-tape boats on a short course, with inspection at 12:30 p.m. and the first heat around 1:30 p.m. |
| Lighted Boat Parade | Dec. 12, 8 p.m. | Key West Bight and Harbor, with the judges' stand at Schooner Wharf |
The city has its own financial stake in the bar staying busy. The lease sets annual base rent at $454,396.94, adjusted each year for the Consumer Price Index, plus about $60,807 a year in estimated taxes, insurance and maintenance. It also requires 6% of annual gross sales above roughly $7.57 million. The lease covers about 9,917 square feet of indoor and outdoor space and allows 205 licensed seats, live entertainment, merchandise sales and ticket sales for excursions and tours leaving from the Historic Seaport. It also requires the tenant to complete roof flashing and sealing repairs found during a city inspection.
Buyers who already run a corner of Old Town
Because the lease handles the calendar, the buyers' track record carries most of the remaining questions, and that record is close to home. Sorg and Croce already run the Green Parrot, the Old Town bar we've written about for its dollar bingo nights and charity work, plus Half Shell Raw Bar. Outside Key West, they operate three restaurants and bars in St. Augustine, eight in Pennsylvania and a boutique hotel. Their holdings are managed through Seacliff Management LLC, doing business as Pat Croce and Company.
The sale is part of a busy month for Key West's long-running bars. Above the Fold called Schooner Wharf the second iconic watering hole to change hands in as many weeks, after Dons' Place, also known as The Million Dollar Bar, on Truman Avenue sold the week before.
The sale paperwork covers the name, the rent and the three named events. It doesn't cover the music lineup, the staff or the menu, and neither party has said anything about those publicly in the sale coverage. Those details will become clear once the bar opens under new owners.
The next date on the harbor is Dec. 12
The next of the three named traditions on the calendar is the 35th Annual Schooner Wharf Bar/Absolut Vodka Lighted Boat Parade on Saturday, Dec. 12. Boats sail into the Key West Bight and Harbor at 8 p.m. The bar's event page says the evening starts at 6 p.m. along the decorated Harbor Walk, where the Bahama Village Music Program's "House of Pan" steel band plays Caribbean and calypso Christmas carols. The 2026 flyer is still listed as coming soon, so watch that page for final details.
The entries range widely. Past boats have included a kayak strung with battery-powered lights, fishing vessels and classic schooners. Winning designs have featured dolphins, manatees, pelicans and sea horses, and palm trees stand in for spruce. The judges' stand is at Schooner Wharf, where the page lists a traditional ham dinner, hot apple jack and eggnog, and crews toss candy and beads to people watching from the docks. Parade results going back to 2004 are archived on the same page, and the 2025 winners are listed at the top.
If the CRA approves the transfer before December, the parade will sail past a judges' stand run by new owners, under the same lease that names the parade.
The Old Town waterfront's yearly calendar shapes how this neighborhood feels to the people who live and own homes here. If you own near the Historic Seaport and want to know how the area's recent changes could affect your home's value, Stacy Stahl will walk you through it, block by block. Request a Complimentary Home Valuation and we'll start with your street and work out from there.
