Marina Dry Stack Storage Presentation
Chair Nutting: We’ll bring the Municipal Facilities Committee meeting to order. First order of business is the approval of minutes.
Committee Member: So moved.
Committee Member: Second.
Chair Nutting: Minutes approved. Second order of business is the marina presentation about dry stack storage facility.
Scott Wilkins: Thank you Chair Nutting, council members. Scott Wilkins and Katie from the Marina. We’re going to give you a short presentation on the dry stack facility. We’re moving forward with our current CIP project, the L, M, and N dock. We’re hoping to get that out to bid in the next few weeks.
There’s been a lot of curiosity regarding dry stacks, so we wanted to inform Council that it’s still a CIP project involved with the all-purpose building project. We’re hoping to spend money next year in 2025 to start some engineering and design work.
Most of you probably don’t know dry stack isn’t a new concept for the marina. It was presented back in 2003 – 21 years ago. The former Harbor Master presented to council with renderings and costs. At that time, Council decided not to move forward.
While pricing and designs have evolved, the core concept remains the same. We’re unable to expand our Marina property in water. To the south, we have tide lands and the yacht club. To the west, the water’s too deep – it’s DNR property. To the north, we get into Normy Park, stormwater, sewer outfalls, eel grass, and other constraints.
Our piece of property is our piece of property. The right thing to do is take advantage of our uplands and build a dry stack storage. It’s the most efficient and profitable option. Katie’s going to explain about financials.
Katie: We took a tour to different dry stack facilities throughout the Puget Sound area, from Tacoma to Anacortes. From our 2022 numbers, building costs including the tilt-up structure, launch platform, wash-down area, and forklift would be roughly $5-6 million.
Annual expenses, including two full-time employees plus utilities and water, would be about $200,000 per year. However, revenue is estimated at about a million dollars a year – about $250,000 more than we currently make on our dry sheds and three smallest covered slips.
Committee Member: Your waiting lists on boats over 40 feet are ridiculously long, right?
Scott Wilkins: Yes, there’s a few lists that are definitely longer than others. The longest list now is around four or five years, mainly for larger boats.
The dry stack revenue would help until we can fund removing some smaller slips to put in larger slips. The building itself can make up to about a million dollars. In the future, when funding is available, we’ve talked about that all-purpose building being incorporated off the dry stack toward the west and water.
Committee Member: So there’s possibility of additional revenue – if it’s $250,000 more than now in the dry stack, how much is estimated for the larger boat slips?
Katie: A 50-foot boat slip dock will bring in approximately $400,000. When we’re financially able to do that, we’ll be removing three smaller docks that are being accounted for in the dry stack. We’re still supporting the small boater but gaining another 50-foot dock.
Committee Member: So we’re talking about $650,000 in new revenue?
Katie: Yes.
Committee Member: Is there a projected timeline on return on investment?
Scott Wilkins: We’d need to get Jeff, our finance director, involved. Right now we’re taking on serious debt for the L, M, and N dock project, which is going to pretty much tap out the marina for debt service. Until we can pay that down somewhat to borrow money, that timeline is unknown.
It’s one reason we were entertaining selling a spot for a hotel – we would have gotten funding to start this project. Any extra funding we can find is money we can use for this project to increase marina revenues.
Committee Member: Do we have the utilities and infrastructure in the marina that will support dry stack storage?
Scott Wilkins: Yes, we would update the 2003 fire suppression systems. The fire district gave us the okay. A dry stack doesn’t take much – just a little power. We hope to do solar or big skylights. Heat would be nice if we could bring down a gas line because then people wouldn’t have to winterize their vessels.
The costly part would be supplying space near the dry stack for boat washing, maintenance, motor flushing. We’d need oil water separators and a containment area. That’d be expensive but necessary.
Committee Member: Have we done an economic impact study on what the increased facilities would have on the city? Is this expected to increase demand for provisioners?
Scott Wilkins: We haven’t done a formal study. The National Marine Trade Association has done studies and held conferences on dry stack back in 2012. This gives people space to get back on the water when they can’t store boats at home.
Committee Member: Given the difficulty getting permits for water work, conservatively you’re saying 7-12 months to 2 years possibly? And this assumes building the dry stack before restructuring the piers?
Scott Wilkins: The way things work, I would estimate under five years. But we’d also have to wait until we have the bond capacity.
Committee Member: That’s what I was going to say – it’s all dependent on what the marina can afford.
Chair Nutting: Is that it? Motion to adjourn?
Committee Member: So moved.
Committee Member: Second.
Chair Nutting: Meeting’s adjourned. Thank you very much for your presentation.