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Tim’s Rivershore Restaurant and Crab House, a landmark on the Potomac River outside Dumfries for nearly three decades, must close for good after Potomac Shores declined to renew the lease, owner Tim Bauckman said Monday.
“I wish I wasn’t telling you this,” he said in a Facebook Live video.
For the last several years, Bauckman has leased the property, first from the developer, SunCal, and then Biddle Real Estate Ventures, which took over management of Potomac Shores in the last year. And for the last several months, he had been in talks with the developer to renew the lease.
“Two days ago, I got a call that the lease wouldn’t be renewed,” Bauckman told InsideNoVa, saying he was “dumfounded” by the news.
Biddle did not immediately return an email for comment.
Tim’s II at Fairview Beach in King George County, Tim’s at Lake Anna in Mineral will and Tim’s at Coles Point in Hague will remain open, he said.
The Dumfries area location will be open on weekends through the end of March as crews slowly move out, Bauckman said.
“I don’t think we’ve been anything but good for the community over the years,” Bauckman said, noting the restaurant has been the site of local Polar Plunge events for years, as well as a contributor to local schools and other charitable causes.
The restaurant opened on the shores of the Potomac River at the end of the Cherry Hill peninsula 28 years ago.
Bauckman owned the restaurant property for many years, but after Hurricane Isabel left severe damage in 2003, he said he was “hamstringed” by Prince William County into selling it to the former owners of the surrounding land. That company eventually went out of business and ownership shifted from bank to bank until SunCal purchased the property for the Potomac Shores development.
“I learned a long time ago dealing with these developers that everybody has a vision,” Bauckman said. “That’s the reality.”
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