(This story has been updated to add new information.)

After 62 years in the community, a longtime beloved Hanover seafood restaurant has sold to another local Hanover business, and will close later this year.

Bay City Restaurant, a family-owned small business that has served seafood in Hanover since 1963, was sold in June after being offered for sale for several years, according to one of the business owners, Christy Smith-Colgan.

Real estate listings show that a sale of the property for around $1.95 million is under contract as of June 10.

In an announcement following the news, local Hanover small business The Olive Branch announced that they had purchased the building, which will be transformed into a retail space as well as an event venue for the ministry’s non-profit.

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The building will undergo an extensive remodeling as part of that transformation, which is expected to be completed in 2026.

The Olive Branch, currently located on High Street in Hanover, is a family-owned wellness business that produces and sells all-natural home and body products.

The business, which also has a non-profit ministry, has grown a large and popular following in the Hanover area over several years of operation.

“We are so very thankful to be able to honor Christy Colgan and the entire Smith family to renovate, restore and rebuild a new heritage in the place her father built,” said Rachel Greenholt, owner of The Olive Branch, in the announcement.

As the Olive Branch is not planning to use the property as a restaurant, the Bay City Restaurant will close in November, Colgan confirmed.

Colgan, and her siblings, Todd and Wesley Smith, the current owners before the pending sale, grew up working at the restaurant, which was founded by their father, the late William “Ted” Smith, 62 years ago.

“After spending our entire lives in the restaurant business, we decided it was time to spend some time with family and friends,” said Colgan, “so we are retiring.”

The three first began working at Bay City when they were as young as 12 years old, and as co-owners had continued to assist in the same kitchen they grew up in, jumping in to wash dishes or bus tables on busy days.

Ted Smith founded Bay City in 1963 when he quit his job as a sales director and began selling bushels of fresh crabs from the Chesapeake Bay out of his Volkswagen Beetle in Hanover.

Reported in 2023: Hanover staple Bay City restaurant celebrates 60 years of seafood and family

Hanover was chosen by Smith because, during his prior business travels, he noticed the area lacked a seafood option.

After hauling seafood up to the Hanover area from Maryland, the Smiths decided to move to Hanover and purchase a carry-out restaurant in a strip mall at 1081 Carlisle St., which turned into a 62-year legacy.

From that strip mall, the carry-out business moved to the North Hanover Mall in 1967, and the family began offering its seafood as a dine-in restaurant.

In 1976, Smith purchased a 2.6-acre lot on a small road nearby and sat on the land for nearly 25 years while the business remained in the mall.

The existing 16,000-square-foot restaurant, adorned in teal paint with a large 100-seat patio and 300-person banquet hall, was designed and built by Smith and his son, Wesley, in 1991.

Ted Smith died in March 2002, and the business remained in the family.

During an interview in 2023, Smith’s three children told the Evening Sun that the legacy of Bay City would be in the memories made there over the years by their loyal customers.

“I’ve seen people get married, have kids, seen their children grow up,” Colgan said in 2023.

“The customers become your family.”

Harrison Jones is the Hanover reporter for The Evening Sun. Contact him at hjones@gannett.com.