St Pete’s “Marina Giveaway” Canceled, but What’s Next?

The City of St Pete has ended negotiations with the company selected to redevelop the Municipal Marina. According to City staff, the City will now “self-perform the redevelopment of the marina”.

The plan was to give our Municipal Marina away to a private company – Safe Harbor Marinas – to Design, Build and Operate a private marina on City property. The City pulled out of negotiations ONLY when Safe Harbor changed ownership.

Before we pivot away from this near-disaster, let’s think about what we almost lost – OUR Municipal Marina.

A municipal marina (like any municipal facility) provides a public benefit. Municipal facilities are built on city property using city funds. User fees pay only for operation costs, maintenance and upgrades, which keeps fees affordable – usually 50% – 80 % of “market rates”. This includes slip rent at the Marina, green fees at the City Golf Course, admission to Sunken Gardens, or free admission to The Pier. This is how all our municipal facilities operate, and how the Marina operated for over 100 years. As waterfront real estate is gobbled up for condos, private marina slip rents have skyrocketed, making municipals marinas more important than ever for people of average means – “Joe and Jane Sixpack” – to afford an in-water boat.

Contrast that with the lease proposed by Safe Harbor.
(Supporting Documents are at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FaGWAbWQdUUjaICzZB-fKK4wMqDUEpp2?usp=drive_link)

Under the Safe Harbor lease, slip rents would have doubled then tripled, leaving boaters paying the highest rates in Tampa Bay. There was a fantasy that redevelopment costs would be paid by Safe Harbor, as if marina redevelopment were a charity cause. In fact those costs would have been paid by boaters, thru rate increases which – oddly – were never discussed. Live-aboards, Commercial Operators and Joe and Jane Sixpack would have been driven from the Marina, leaving a monoculture of affluence.

Under the Safe Harbor lease, the marina would be built and owned by a private company, and paid for by boaters. Meanwhile, massive profits flow to Safe Harbor, while the City collects pennies on the dollar.

That’s not a municipal facility. It’s a Privately-owned, Economically-exclusive floating Country Club built on City property.

The City has finally backed away from this disastrous plan, and the project has been pulled back into City Hall to be reworked. Under the new plan, the City will redevelop the Marina.

That’s good news, but it’s not enough.

Marina development is not an area of expertise for any city, and St Pete clearly does not have the required knowledge in-house. If the past is any guide, the “reworked” proposal will be based on the same self-perpetuating myths and cherry-picked data. It will emerge from City Hall fully-formed and unalterable. The new proposal will be presented to City Council as “the only viable alternative”, requiring an up or down vote. And remember: This is the same City Hall that has pushed TWO different lease proposals to privatize our Marina, showing a total disregard for what a municipal marina is.

This is not a recipe for success.

The Marina project needs a complete reboot, a fresh set of eyes, and a big dose of sunshine.

We need a Marina Work Group, Citizen-led and Publicly accountable that will:
• Include Marina Tenants, Commercial Operators and City staff (at a minimum);
• Collect input from experts (marine consultants, contractors, marina operators, etc.);
• Hold public meetings with ample opportunity for public input – before decisions are made;
• Cut thru the myths, opinions, and cherry-picked data, and focus on documented facts;
• Develop multiple options for revitalizing the Marina, each to include benefits, costs, and impact on marina tenants, especially slip rent increases;
• Make those options public before presenting them to City Council.

That’s a recipe for success.

Using the Community as a resource, we can develop a realistic plan for revitalizing a Municipal Marina that is functional, pleasant and Accessible to All.

Eric Feldman is a lifelong boater and a fan of affordable municipal marinas. His background includes reviewing multimillion dollar leases full of glossy photos and boring numbers. He has no affiliation with any group or company involved in the Marina redevelopment.