Cape Charles Yacht Center to Manage Harbor

0
1046
Image from Cape Charles Yacht Center’s harbor management proposal.

By Stefanie Jackson – The Cape Charles town council voted unanimously Sept. 17 to enter a three-year contract with the Cape Charles Yacht Center to manage the Cape Charles harbor.

“It’s a risk that we need to take,” said Councilman Steve Bennett, who acknowledged the harbor will likely lose money in the first year as investments are made in its longterm success.

The decision was reached about eight months after the town council started the conversation on possibly hiring a private company to manage the publicly owned harbor, and proposals from three companies were reviewed.

The Cape Charles Yacht Center had competition from two marinas, one based in Maryland and another based in Florida.

Town Manager John Hozey noted that deciding factors in choosing the yacht center were its ability to market the harbor to potential new clients and the “efficiencies of scale” the yacht center could provide through its proximity to the harbor.

But that proximity could also create a “conflict of interest between town dockage and yacht center dockage,” Councilman Paul Grossman noted.

That’s one reason why the terms of the three-year contract include a one-year review – to give the town council a chance to examine what parts of the agreement are working or not working and to make any necessary changes or terminate the contract.

The one-year review will be “a really good opportunity for us to reinforce some of our priorities, like … protecting our heritage as a working harbor,” added Councilman Andrew Follmer.

The contract will “generate an inclusivity and just an all-around better experience for boaters that are coming here,” said Councilman Steve Bennett.

Hozey clarified that the harbor is not being sold to the yacht center. “We’re just hiring them to run the day-to-day management,” he said.

The town council’s objective is “improving financial operating results” of the harbor, according to the request for proposals – but those results are expected over time, not in the first year.

The Cape Charles Yacht Center’s principals, Nicole Jacques and J.B. Turner, plan to expand the facility in the next 18 to 24 months, drawing more business to the yacht center and, in turn, the harbor.

The yacht center currently uses a 75-ton hoist to service recreational, commercial, and government vessels. It also receives service requests that cannot be accommodated by the 75-ton hoist.

The yacht center is losing potential business from oversized and overweight vessels that travel hundreds of miles north to New England, south to Florida, or even overseas to find shipyards that can accommodate them.

The planned expansion of the yacht center includes the acquisition of a 500-metric-ton hoist and construction of a 70-foot-high, 70,000-square-foot shed for working on larger vessels.

The harbor will get more business from “spillover traffic” from the yacht center, the proposal stated.

The harbor also will be promoted in Cape Charles Yacht Center ads and marketing campaigns on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, targeting “boater-heavy regions” like the Chesapeake Bay, Cape May, N.J., Hatteras, N.C., Charleston, S.C., and southern Florida.

The town will benefit financially because the yacht center will cover harbor employee wages and benefits. The harbor and yacht center will share employees, including a full-time, year-round dockmaster who will be hired to manage the docks of both facilities, the proposal stated.

Mayor Smitty Dize also expects the harbor will be cleaned and maintained better, attracting more boaters, so “we’ll make more money along the way.”

A transition period will begin Oct. 1, with the yacht center officially taking over management of the harbor Jan. 1.

Bennett said, “I don’t see that it’s going to be detrimental to anybody that is in the harbor. It can only be better.”

Previous articleCindy Fenton Ulrich
Next articleBroadband Authority Plans to Expand Shore Internet Access