A historic wooden pier will get new life thanks to a partnership between the city and a local hotel owner.

The decaying Newport Fishing Pier, an attraction for tourists and anglers in Sunny Isles Beach since 1936, will be completely rebuilt with help from the owners of an adjacent hotel. 

About $4 to $5 million will go into repairing the wooden pier, damaged during Hurricane Wilma.  The Newport Operating Group, which owns the Newport Beachside Hotel and Resort at 16701 Collins Avenue., will continue $2 million.  The city will take care of the rest.

“It’s really quite unusual to see people come up and put their cash where their mouth is on these deals,” said Mayor Norman Edelcup.  If not for the offer, “we would be sitting here for years trying to file grants and requests,” he said.

The pier stretches 928 feet into the Atlantic Ocean and has been mostly shut down - a portion remained open for a few months - since the 2005 hurricane.  It was designated a historic site by the county in 1982.  A recent structural analysis by Marlin Engineering, a Doral-based firm, found damaged planks and heavy corrosion in the hardware holding the pier together.

The pier “could collapse at any moment due to the extensive damage,” the firm’s president, Ramon Soria, wrote in his report.  “It is our opinion that the structure should be removed in its entirety.”  A solution had to be found as soon as possible, said City Manager John Szerlag. “We thought that the next major storm surge could bring the pier down,” he said. 

Early this year, Robert Cornfeld, president of the Newport Operating Group, volunteered to help with the restoration.  Cornfeld said the pier held value, both for his business and for the city.  “It was extremely popular when it was open,” said Cornfeld , who has lived in South Florida for the past 50 years.  “We’d have, on some days, hundreds of visitors.”

The city will control and operate the pier but has agreed to split revenues evenly with the Newport.  Use of the pier will be free for city residents and Newport Hotel guests.  The city will decide who gets to occupy a coveted restaurant spot on the pier and also who will be liable for any future repairs and insurance costs.

The repairs will mean the return of the activity for which the pier was named.  “The fishing was excellent from the end of the pier,” Cornfeld said.