Sandbar Poised To Secure New Five-Year Lease For Town's Jetties Beach Concession

Sandbar, the seasonal restaurant and bar at Jetties Beach, looks set to have its lease of the town-owned waterfront concession space extended for another five years after receiving a positive recommendation from outgoing municipal finance director Brian Turbitt.

There were no other bids for the restaurant space, and Turbitt rated Sandbar’s application as “highly advantageous” on all fronts, advancing it for final approval from the Select Board.

The new lease will begin in 2027 and will run until 2031. In the first year, Sandbar will pay the town $200,000 for the use of the space, with that figure gradually increasing to $256,000 in the final year of the lease. Sandbar will also pass along an average of 7.5 percent of food sales to the town.

Calling the plan “extremely well laid out,” Turbitt, acting as the sole member of this year’s iteration of the evaluation committee for the contract, recommended that the town enter into another lease with Sandbar.

Owned by island residents George Kelly and Nick Nass, Sandbar first opened in 2017. Both Kelly and Nass declined to comment this week, citing the Select Board's final review of the lease, which has yet to be scheduled.

When the space last went out to bid in 2021, Sandbar faced competition from a pair of bids, including one submitted by the owners of the Madaket-based restaurant Millie’s. A town review committee voted 5-0 to award the contract to Sandbar.