Collier Merrill

The Fish House restaurant in downtown Pensacola has emerged from a legal challenge with its lease intact. However, there remains one more fight in the case.

On Friday, Circuit Judge Scott Duncan ruled that Fish House owner Collier Merrill’s sub-lease of the Pitts Slip property from business partner Ray Russenberger was immune from having to pay the city up to five million dollars in additional rent and interest.

More than two years after the initial filing, a lawsuit against the City of Pensacola involving the land on which the Fish House Restaurant sits may be close to resolution.

Circuit Judge Scott Duncan held a six-hour hearing on the case in January. Fish House owner Collier Merrill says their argument then was the same as it’s been all along, concerning the lease for the city-owned property call Pitt Slip, on which The Fish House and Atlas Oyster House sit.

Unable to reach a settlement over leases for the city-owned Pitt’s Slip property, two businessmen are taking the City of Pensacola to court.

Seville Harbour Incorporated – owned by Ray Russenberger – holds the master lease for the property on which Collier Merrill’s Fish House Restaurant and Atlas Oyster Bar are located as Great Southern Restaurant Group. The city claimed that the eateries owed more than five million dollars in payments dating back to the year 2000 when the lease was first signed.

The City of Pensacola Tuesday rescinded its claim to back royalties and interest, from two restaurants that are on city-leased property downtown.

City officials backed off their claims that Collier Merrill and his firm, Great Southern Restaurants owed more than five million dollars in default lease payments over the past 13 years involving the Fish House and Atlas Oyster Bar.

The City of Pensacola has rescinded its claim to back royalties and interest, from two restaurants that are on city-leased property downtown.

City officials backed off their claims that Collier Merrill and his firm, Great Southern Restaurants owed more than five million dollars in default lease payments over the past 13 years involving the Fish House and Atlas Oyster Bar.

Talks to resolve the situation began on Monday. Merrill’s attorney Bruce Partington met with members of the private law firm Beggs and Lane, who represented the city, instead of City Attorney Jim Messer.

Pensacola businessmen Ray Russenberger and Collier Merrill will meet with city officials Monday afternoon, on allegations they owe past-due sales royalties and interest on revenues from the Fish House and Atlas Oyster Bar restaurants in downtown Pensacola.
At issue is the ownership of the building, not of the restaurants themselves, on a tract of city land called “Pitt Slip Marina.” Ray Russenberger leased the property in 1987, then granted a sub-lease in 2000 to Collier Merrill and his partners – who formed Great Southern Restaurants.