Popular steakhouse Seltzer's selling Pasco County restaurant

Just about two months after Harold Seltzer’s Steakhouse abruptly shut down its Clearwater location, the restaurant chain has put its business and lease in Port Richey up for sale.

According to a marketing email from the Tampa commercial real estate firm The Ross Realty Group sent Wednesday afternoon, the popular local steakhouse chain is selling its business and lease hold for its location at the Gulf View Mall Square Mall in Pasco County for $800,000. The email describes the property at 9409 U.S. Highway 19 as a “Turnkey restaurant with full staff in place and gross rental rates far below market rates!”

A person answering the phone at the restaurant last week said she knew nothing of a potential change in ownership. “At the moment we’re still open every single day from three to nine,” she said. “Except Sunday when we’re open 12 to nine.”

Harold Seltzer’s is a chain with a long tradition in the area, tracing its roots back to the Sam Seltzer’s Steakhouse chain.

The original chain took its name from the family patriarch, a Montreal butcher for more than 60 years. Seltzer’s grandson, Harold, initially bypassed the family business, going to law school instead and practicing commercial law until he moved to Tampa in 1995. Once here, he opened the restaurant chain bearing his grandfather’s name and helped grow it into a staple along the West Coast of Florida with 13 locations at its peak. 

Company website

The chain shut down in 2010 and Harold, who had left the business in 2005 to “pursue other ventures,” opened The Original Harold Seltzer’s Steakhouse in St. Petersburg and New Port Richey the same year. The current Port Richey location opened in 2010.

The Clearwater restaurant opened in 2020 but only lasted three years, closing July 1 after a day’s notice after a landlord who had recently bought the property canceled its lease.

With the Clearwater store closed and the Port Richey location on the market, all that remains is the St. Petersburg restaurant, at 3500 Tyrone Blvd. N.

There was no word or indication Wednesday that its future was up in the air. 

As for the sale, Ross’ listing says the space is 10,360 square feet and that its entrance is inside the mall. The listing says there is a lease in place until Jan. 31, 2026 with a five-year option that could extend that until 2031. Lease terms were not disclosed in the listing.

While the asking price is $800,000, FF&E — real estate parlance for furniture, fixtures, and equipment — is estimated at $250,000. Sales data will be available after a non-disclosure agreement is executed.

Gulf View Square is a traditional enclosed mall in Pasco. It opened in 1980 at 1.05 million square feet and was expected to be a destination for shoppers not only in Pasco but Hernando and Citrus counties according to a Sept. 7, 1979 story in The Tampa Tribune.

The story quotes a spokesperson for developer Edward J. DeBartolo calling the county, even then, “one of the fastest growing areas in Florida.”