By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
The Marina at Moss Landing is sealing the deal with people buying new boat slips in front of the Moss Landing residential development in Washington.
That dream edged forward over the weekend with the official opening of the private marina, timed to coincide with the 12th-annual Smoke on the Water festival.
A number of boats were tied up at the marina Monday afternoon.
Most of those boats belonged to people who had made a commitment to purchase boat slips, said Bob Wilson, president of the Rowboat Co. of Mooresville and a managing partner in the marina project.
“We haven’t closed on any of them yet,” Wilson said of the slips. “We’re in the process of starting that process next week.”
The partners have contracts on 17 of the first slips in the water, according to Terry Smithwick, a managing partner in the marina.
The slips can accommodate 29 boats in the first phase, related Stan Friedman, another partner. Once completed, the entire marina will have 92 boat slips, Friedman said.
“The biggest thing people have to buy into is the town itself,” Smithwick said.
As owners bring in larger boats, those boats could become “floating condos” for people who might spend a week or two in the city, said Smithwick, who has moved his boat to the marina and spent the weekend there.
“The Marina at Moss Landing is a new state-of-the-art marina comprising 92 private slips ranging from 30 to 50 feet in length,” reads a news release from Moss Property Partners. “The marina is designed to accommodate both power and sailing vessels up to 60 feet and is within walking distance of historic downtown Washington.”
The slips range in price from $40,800 for a 30-foot slip to $106,250 for a 50-foot slip, according to the news release.
“When we designed this project we designed it specifically to accommodate a wide range of boats from 30 feet right on up to 60 or 70 feet,” Smithwick said.
Dockside amenities include potable water, locked security gates and wireless Internet access, and there are proposals for a swimming pool and a clubhouse, the news release shows.
Once complete, and filled with boats, the full marina complex could equal a tax-base value of $10 million to $12 million, Smithwick said.
“The marina itself is extremely well-sheltered and is served by the deep-water channel that comes into the town,” Wilson commented. “When you’re looking for what boaters are looking for, you’re looking for a well-sheltered marina that is well made.”
A couple of local officials said Washington could take full advantage of the marina’s economic impact as well as other boating traffic — provided certain key elements are in place.
At present, the city-owned docks off Stewart Parkway are not always full, and the city just began marketing those spaces in some boating magazines, said Teresa Hamilton, dock supervisor and administrative assistant for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
The public docks are open for rental year-round.
“It’s hard to tell, with the economy, what’s happening,” Hamilton said. “Sometimes it seems like that there is little business, and sometimes it seems like it’s not affected.”
Though some boaters stayed away in summer 2008, boating traffic has returned to normal this year, she said.
Lynn Lewis, director of Washington’s Tourism Development Authority, cited an anecdote she heard several years ago during a tourism conference: “For every boat that bobs, you could multiply your impact by eight people.”
Boats lure not just boaters but people who visit waterfront areas to look at the boats, she said.
“It’s not just the bodies on the boat, and that’s what so many people tend to think,” Lewis said.
There is a need for improved public restrooms and a prime need for dockside fueling in the downtown area, she added in response to an interview question.
“That is an amenity that definitely needs some attention,” Lewis concluded.
The Moss Landing marina won’t compete with the city docks, Wilson said.
“We’re offering a very different market,” he noted.