11 acre water-front land. Do I have a deal or walk away????

[Jonathan Jewell]

Hello fellow BPers

Through a random string of events I’m now looking at a potential 11 acre waterfront deal, that I’m hoping a few of you have some input to give me.

I have been going back and forth in my head trying to figure this one out, to see if I even have a deal at all, and if I do how do I go about closing this and next step.

A few disclaimers:

I have ZERO experience in land development. The most land development I have ever done was put a mobile home on a vacant lot. So this really is virgin territory for me.

I have ZERO experience in running a boat Marina, and I really have no desire to run one. From what I read, heard and explained to me. They are labor intensive and you really have to be there all the time.

Now the details:

As I said before, through a completely random string of events, last week ending up having a 1.5 hour sit down with the owner of a boat Marina. He’s owned and operated it for 7 days a week for 30+ years. He wants to sell, he is done. How done? “Put money in my hand at the price I want for it and I’ll hand you the keys and walk away right now”. (He wants 1.6 M but also said he would go lower if it meant he didn’t have to be a consultant or be involved) I said 1 million? He said maybe, and left it at that. Guy is up there in age and came the realization that he missed out on a lot of life events and family. Determined to spend what time he has left with grandkids.

The marina is on 11 acres of land, 2 of the 4 property sides are along the water. The Marina water portion itself is pretty large that can accommodate up to 200 boat slips. But just to give you an idea of how downhill this place is. There are 15 active and paying members of the Marina. Also this is could be considered a boat grave yard. There are literally about a hundred abandoned boats and heavy equipment machinery throughout the property, so there is going to be a large cleanup and boat disposal bill.

He has been approached by condo developers. I totally believe him because he showed me the business cards of the other gentlemen. There have been tracts of water front land being bought up recently too, but they have not made a move yet. They are going through the motions of visiting township officials and zoning etc, but doesn't want to wait a year or 2 until developers get their ducks in a row, he wants out now.  Which I guess is why he spent time with me when I said, I would just keep it as a marina.

side note: I did a market research survey a few years back on whether the area would support a waterfront restaurant (It was an idea 5 years ago) and the results that were a solid yes. So that’s been rolling around in my head.

I’m at a loss guys. Do I have something here? I believe there is a reason for everything , and I feel that there seems to be an opportunity here, but I don’t have the knowledge or expertise to pull it all together. 

And you know they stopped making water front property awhile ago. :-)

[Jay Hinrichs]

floating tiny homes... ????  cash in on both the latest craze's ... sure looks like a deal to me.. of course I am west coast bias and 1 mil for all that seems dirt cheap.. but then again so does 30k houses in PA... compared to what we deal with.

but I guess on a personal level do you want to be that guy.. work on it every day for 30 years..and if its run into the ground how are you going to change that.???? 

I have seen this show in those that try to buy C and D class multi thinking the last guy was a slumlord only to loss the butt.

I like the flip to the developer though.. if you can leverage in .. get your plates approved and flip to developer who can take it down that could work nicely. 

Get with a really good land use planner in the county or whatever jurisdiction your in.. and or civil engineering firm they have probably already been approached..

the first thing I do when I look at this type of stuff that is in an area I am not familiar with I pay a civil that has a land use component in their office for a due diligence package Usually around 8 to 10k.. and since there is a milske on the line probably not a bad use of 10k to figure out what your getting into...

all us in the peanut gallery of BP and the internet can make assumptions but what do we really know.. not a lot really..