The owner of the Sand Bar Restaurant has asked the city of Selma for a long-term lease before he rebuilds at the Selma City Marina.

David Pearce wants to rebuild the restaurant, which flooded when the Alabama River rose to above 49 feet after Christmas, but said he needs a long enough lease to recover his investment.

“We’ve got back in it and it’s basically destroyed,” Pearce said.

Currently, he has seven years left on his lease for the real estate at the city’s only marina.

“I think if I got a long, extended lease I could put more money in it for sure,” Pearce told the council at Thursday’s work session. “The longer there is on the lease, the more money I can spend on it and justify it.”

Pearce’s plans include a larger restaurant built on stilts as well as fuel and bait for those putting in at the marina.

The council discussed adding 25 years onto Pearce’s remaining seven years. The issue is expected to be voted on during Tuesday’s regular meeting.

Pearce said if he rebuilds the restaurant would be high enough off the ground to weather floods. The restaurant has flooded twice since April 2014.

Pearce said the stilts on the new restaurant would be high enough to have made it through the historic 1961 floods. He joked that should the river rise to that level again that he would pick people up by boat and take them down to the Sand Bar to eat.

“I’m sick of all this water,” Pearce said.

Selma Mayor George Evans supports giving Pearce and The Sand Bar a longer lease.

“He’s been talking for the last few months about expanding. It had outgrown its space already,” Evans said. “I would hope the council would consider giving him 25 or 30 years.

Construction on a new restaurant would take at least six to eight weeks after city approval is granted.

Councilwoman Susan Keith said she would bring up a resolution Tuesday granting the longer lease.

“Let’s be ready to talk about that Tuesday night and act on it. We need to do this quickly,” Keith said.