Save the St Pete Municipal Marina from Privatization!
The Issue
We must save the St. Petersburg FL Municipal Marina!
Flash update - The City Council meeting to vote on SHD will NOT take place on the 6th of May but may take place on the 20th
City Council is voting May 20th on a proposal to privatize the municipal marina, leasing it to a Tennessee developer, Safe Harbor Development and enter into a 5-year lease agreement during which SHD will spend $30 million to build a new marina. Why five years? The city cannot enter into a long-term lease of waterfront property without a city vote (OUR vote). A short-term lease is only a deferment of that vote. After the initial term, a referendum will be required before a long-term lease can be issued. If the referendum doesn’t pass, the city will reimburse SHD with a termination fee. The termination fee the city would owe to SHD would likely be $3.75 Million!
Why not just wait till August or November and have a referendum on the ballot?
In a nutshell, this company plans to lease the waterfront property and build an upscale marina (with associated upscale pricing) that will price out “regular folks.” It is the antithesis of what a municipal marina should be: a public facility with affordable access.
Their final plan, includes the following:
1. Eliminating many small boat slips. The smallest slips will likely be 25ft.
2. Some development of Demen’s Landing PARK, including more parking. They are working with the Waterfront Parks Foundation to come up with an acceptable plan, but the Foundation has not yet given their blessing.
3. Spaces for megayachts (120-130ft.)
4. The developer proposes to increase city resident slip rates 10%/year for the initial five-year term of the lease, a 60% increase over the current rates at the end of the lease term. And, non-residents' fees will be 15-20% higher!!!
5. A decrease in boat slips by about 6%
These proposed pricing rates are substantially higher than those of other municipal marinas, and much more on par with upscale private marinas like The Harborage here in St. Pete. The concern with the privatization is people getting forced out of their dock slips due to this change and proposed pricing and this effects not just existing tenants. There are would-be boat owners dreaming of having a craft in the municipal marina that will no longer be able to afford it if this goes private.
Keep St. Pete Local!!! Please sign our petition and email city council (council@stpete.org) prior to Thursday May 20th and let them know that you want our municipal marina to remain a place with access to everyone and not be privatized. That land is waterfront property, so we are all stakeholders.
For additional details on the proposal please see below. https://www.stpete.org/parks_and_recreation/marina/?fbclid=IwAR17B0YIo5v5zJFVEWQ8gZpeKIjUqrZ8kwp-LJ8ch_lcIAbpFNnNzy5iwy0
The Issue
We must save the St. Petersburg FL Municipal Marina!
Flash update - The City Council meeting to vote on SHD will NOT take place on the 6th of May but may take place on the 20th
City Council is voting May 20th on a proposal to privatize the municipal marina, leasing it to a Tennessee developer, Safe Harbor Development and enter into a 5-year lease agreement during which SHD will spend $30 million to build a new marina. Why five years? The city cannot enter into a long-term lease of waterfront property without a city vote (OUR vote). A short-term lease is only a deferment of that vote. After the initial term, a referendum will be required before a long-term lease can be issued. If the referendum doesn’t pass, the city will reimburse SHD with a termination fee. The termination fee the city would owe to SHD would likely be $3.75 Million!
Why not just wait till August or November and have a referendum on the ballot?
In a nutshell, this company plans to lease the waterfront property and build an upscale marina (with associated upscale pricing) that will price out “regular folks.” It is the antithesis of what a municipal marina should be: a public facility with affordable access.
Their final plan, includes the following:
1. Eliminating many small boat slips. The smallest slips will likely be 25ft.
2. Some development of Demen’s Landing PARK, including more parking. They are working with the Waterfront Parks Foundation to come up with an acceptable plan, but the Foundation has not yet given their blessing.
3. Spaces for megayachts (120-130ft.)
4. The developer proposes to increase city resident slip rates 10%/year for the initial five-year term of the lease, a 60% increase over the current rates at the end of the lease term. And, non-residents' fees will be 15-20% higher!!!
5. A decrease in boat slips by about 6%
These proposed pricing rates are substantially higher than those of other municipal marinas, and much more on par with upscale private marinas like The Harborage here in St. Pete. The concern with the privatization is people getting forced out of their dock slips due to this change and proposed pricing and this effects not just existing tenants. There are would-be boat owners dreaming of having a craft in the municipal marina that will no longer be able to afford it if this goes private.
Keep St. Pete Local!!! Please sign our petition and email city council (council@stpete.org) prior to Thursday May 20th and let them know that you want our municipal marina to remain a place with access to everyone and not be privatized. That land is waterfront property, so we are all stakeholders.
For additional details on the proposal please see below. https://www.stpete.org/parks_and_recreation/marina/?fbclid=IwAR17B0YIo5v5zJFVEWQ8gZpeKIjUqrZ8kwp-LJ8ch_lcIAbpFNnNzy5iwy0
The Decision Makers
Petition Updates
Share this petition
Petition created on April 15, 2021