CARTERET COUNTY, N.C. -- Atlantic Beach visitors consider the possibilities for the former Channel Marker Restaurant property along the Atlantic Beach Causeway.

• The restaurant was totaled during Hurricane Florence
• Business partner Bill Downey says he and the other owners were ready to move on.
• The building has been repaired three times in 15 years.

The restaurant was totaled during Hurricane Florence, and business partner Bill Downey says he and the other owners were ready to move on.

In 15 years, he says the building has been repaired three times.

“We just didn’t want to go through rebuilding that building and starting all over again,” says Downey.

Beachgoers offer up ideas from a playground, to a boat and jet ski rental facility, to a bathhouse.

“A lot of people just take day trips you know? It’s expensive to come down here for the weekend or the week so you just take day trips down here and it’s a miserable drive home,” says Cherie Grice, visiting the beach with her family from Smithfield.

She had the idea when she remembered she had a two hour drive home that night.

“Somewhere you could stop, wash off, clean up, kids maybe have a little park out there the kids can relax, you can have lunch,” says Grice.

The property is 9,600 sq. ft. overlooking the water.

Downey says there have been a few buyers who expressed interest, but no sale has been finalized.