The Surge of Private Equity into Marinas
The Surge of Private Equity into Marinas
Compiled from primary source calls and independent research
by: Alex Chin
Compiled from primary source calls and independent research
by: Alex Chin
In 2020, Sun Communities acquired Safe Harbor Marinas – a 101-marina platform that was, at the time, the largest marina owner and operator in the domestic market – for $2.11 billion. According to an experienced investor in the space, this was the deal that “woke up Wall Street”. The infiltration of private equity into US marinas – in his words, “the greatest asset on the planet” – had begun.
In 2020, Sun Communities acquired Safe Harbor Marinas – a 101-marina platform that was, at the time, the largest marina owner and operator in the domestic market – for $2.11 billion. According to an experienced investor in the space, this was the deal that “woke up Wall Street”. The infiltration of private equity into US marinas – in his words, “the greatest asset on the planet” – had begun.
D-Marin Marina Zea in Athens, Greece. Source: D-Marin
D-Marin Marina Zea in Athens, Greece. Source: D-Marin
Just 5 years later, after consolidating 37 additional marinas, Sun Communities sold Safe Harbor to Blackstone for $5.65 billion – a whopping 21x FFO multiple and a realized return on purchase price of 2.68x in 5 years
Private equity is on the hunt –- just last September, reports surfaced that Centerbridge partners was seeking to exit Suntex at a valuation of $4 billion. This April, Stonepeak acquired Southern Marinas from KSL Capital Partners for over $700M. In June, InfraVia Capital Partners agreed to acquire Mediterranean platform D-Marin for €1 - 1.5 billion. And just in August, Blackstone-owned Safe Harbor announced plans to acquire 65-marina platform MarineMax for an all-cash, $1.5B deal. Significant domestic and international activity signal that large-scale acquisition by private equity is here to stay.
Global Marina Acquisitions in the past 10 years.
Source: Marina World
The general consensus among buy-side professionals seems to be that marina owners aren’t afraid of external acquisition; an expert in the marina M&A space put it this way – when approached by a broker, 95% of owners will listen, 70% will take the leap of faith, and 50-60% will actually close. He noted how most of the larger, independently owned marinas are dwindling, and fast. Nevertheless, extreme fragmentation still exists – an expert in the space noted how 93-94% of marinas are still mom-and-pop owned out of 12k marinas in the US – leaving over 11k marinas up for grabs.
Domestic market share remains protected, too – the largest 4 players (Safe Harbor, Suntex, MarineMax, and Alliance) make for just 4.4% of the global market – which is valued at around $20 billion. The top 50 operators account for only 20% of industry revenue. The larger North American recreational boating market is valued at $10.52 billion and seems to be on an upward climb. Reports indicate that in 2025, the US marina industry made $7.7 billion in revenue at a historical CAGR of 2.4%; realistically, though, the industry experienced immense growth during COVID (2020: $6.9, 2023: $7.8) and has since flatlined. Boat sales slid down 9.1% in 2024 and another 7.3% in 2025 – a note that though attractive to private equity, the space is still imperfect.
Market Size for North American Boating Market.
Source: Market Data Forecast Analysis
The State of Play
Internationally, the approximately $20 billion marina industry varies heavily by continent. It’s fairly quiet in South America and Africa – even still, BR Marinas has a presence in Brazil, and markets in Cape Verde, Morocco, and especially South Africa (Cape Town!) are somewhat prevalent. The Middle East is full of wealth – oriented around rich, luxury boating ex-pats with international itineraries. As for Southeast Asia, the market still needs some time to take off – though countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia have vibrant maritime economies, there isn’t enough capital or interest in the region quite yet. The market in Australia and New Zealand is distinctly separate from the rest of the world; geographic isolation localizes boats and marina design. 85% of the Australian population is next to the coast – they’ve invested in marinas and facilities to cultivate an ingrained boating culture.
And then, there’s Europe, the second-largest marina market in the world. It’s currently projected to grow at a 4.9% CAGR by 2034 – slightly higher than the 4.5% North American figure. Some countries are more boat-centric than others; the space itself is very diverse. Recently, private equity has taken a liking to the Scandinavian countries, especially Norway and Sweden – look at Norvestor’s Marina Group, or Fantasi Marinas. This region has some of the highest boats-per-100,000 inhabitants rates in the world, high demand (25 percent of the population has access to a berth) and strong boating culture.
Countries like the UK are somewhat in the middle, with some activity (Premier Marinas and Aquavista) but not much platform expansion happening. Giant yachting markets include Italy, Greece, Spain and France – Lots of different groups are active in Spain, and one writer described the South of France as a “boating mecca”. Last year, Safe Harbor acquired the 9-marina, superyacht-focused platform Monaco Marine. Room for consolidation in the larger Mediterranean arena still exists – the rise of smaller groups like Balmaris Marinas is yet more evidence for activity in the space. The global marina industry sits on over $1 trillion of prime, waterfront real estate – for places like the South of France, yachting is an economic powerhouse that remains the center of wealthy, high-status lifestyles.
PE firms have recognized that there’s an awful lot of money to be made, particularly when marinas are viewed as mixed use developments – not just a “parking lot for boats”, but as a profit-generating center of coastal lifestyles; think hospitality, restaurants, and retail. They are the anchors of coastal economies. Ultimately, an investment into a coastal marina is an investment into world-class, waterfront real estate; capital expenditures that modernize, technologize, and optimize existing infrastructure pay off in the long run.
Looking for Marinas in your market?
Regulations
By nature of being on the water, marinas are subject to a significant amount of environmental regulations – necessary impediments to business that strengthen the thesis that this industry isn’t for everyone. Marina development is regulated by the US Army Corps of Engineers, who then conduct Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements in preparation for a permit. The Clean Water Act requires marinas to control their pollution output; in other words, manage discharges, stormwater, sewage, and spills appropriately. In a similar sense, EPA regulations promote waterflow-friendly marina designs in an effort to reduce shoreline erosion and habitat destruction. Marinas that perform maintenance also may be subject to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; waste classified as hazardous must be disposed of and noted properly. Environmental regulation remains a high barrier to entry, particularly in relation to the new construction of marinas. Still, day-to-day marina operations are monitored closely by the government.
Unit Economics
From a Unit Economics perspective, it’s easy to see why investors are pushing to consolidate platforms. Take two marinas, both with 200 slips. An independent platform relies heavily on slip revenue, while consolidated platforms lean into service components, such as repairs and maintenance (R&M) and food and beverage (F&B). Consolidation cuts costs where you’d expect: centralized G&A, in part, cuts labor costs, and increased leverage with fuel distributors increases margins to customers. These platform economics allow big players like Safe Harbor or Suntex to scale – outperforming family-owned marinas with ease.
And while most multiples are heavily dependent upon location, size, and what kinds of services that they offer beyond slips. According to CT Acquisitions, “Premium coastal marinas with high occupancy (90%+), strong ancillary revenue (service yard, ship’s store), and clean environmental profile trade at 11-14x EBITDA in 2026. Mid-market regional marinas trade at 8-11x EBITDA. Inland or seasonal marinas trade at 6-9x EBITDA.”
A note: Important to the surge in Marina acquisition is the classification of Marinas as REITs – Real Estate Investment Trusts – throughout the late 2010s. Private Letter rulings issued from 2019 onwards classified floating docks, seawalls, dry storage buildings, and the marina itself as real property – and qualified revenue from slips and storage as REIT income, avoiding entity-level federal corporate tax. For example, if EBT for a given marina is $1 million, then your tax savings are $210k. Note, though, that these savings don’t just disappear – REITs distribute taxable income to shareholders who then pay dividends-based deductions back to the corporation. Within any given marina, services such as fuel, repairs, and maintenance are classified under a Taxable REIT Subsidiary (TRS), and thus any revenue generated from those services are subject to a 21% federal corporate tax. The onset of Safe Harbor’s 2020 deal with Sun Communities (a REIT!) increased public confidence in the REIT thesis and reinforced the fact that marinas are not merely service businesses, but rather powerful and desirable pieces of waterfront real estate.
Investment Thesis
Aside from pure Unit Economics, investors still have strong support from larger, macro industry tailwinds.
Supply-demand dynamic
Waterfront real estate is scarce – and desirable. According to an investor in the space, marinas are a perfect mix of “static inventory and infinite demand growth”. It's a low cyclical, high demand industry. In 2024, 56% of marinas reported occupancy rates above 95%, while 26% reported 100% occupancy; the average occupancy rate for any given marina is 95% or higher. While statistics for boat storage isn’t necessarily publicly available, options include marinas, dry-stack storage (indoor facilities), seasonal storage, and home (trailer, driveway, etc.). In some areas there are still more than 10x as many boats as there are slips. Nationally, this also seems to be the case – for an estimated 15.4 million boats (11.8 million registered, 3.6 million unregistered) in the US, there are only 1.1 million slips. The creation of new marina supply is incredibly difficult due to regulation by the Army Corps of Engineers, real estate acquisition, and the capital intensive nature of the endeavor; a marina can’t just be placed anywhere, making those already in place incredibly valuable pieces of real estate.
As such, existing marinas have incredible pricing power over those boat owners; owning most of or all of the marinas in a particular region gives platforms the opportunity to pull levers of monopoly power. If marinas raise prices or tail off on the quality of their business, customers still have little choices elsewhere. Constraints on supply are foundational to this thesis – as one investor puts it, “where else are people going to put their boat?”
Boat Supply vs. Marina Supply, 2024
Contracted Cash Flows
Marinas have high visibility into their own revenue – while some agreements are done on a seasonal basis, the average long-term marina slip contract lasts 12 months, making returns consistent and easy to forecast. Strong recurring revenue characteristics exist, due to revenue from wet slips but also due to services such as R&M, fuel, and dry storage. Pair that with high switching costs and sticky customers – marina leases typically show 90% retention – and the inconvenience and expense associated with moving locks in future cash flows for years.
In premium, core coastal markets like California, Florida, or New England, occupancy rates run sky-high. Constrained supply is most associated with confidence in recurring revenues – long waitlists for berths mean that even if one boat owner leaves, another will fill its place. Owners, brokers, and investors frequently name recurring revenue as the top characteristic of any given marina business; from a PE standpoint, financial predictability makes for an attractive sector with few downsides.
A Very Wealthy Customer Base
Boating is typically seen as a pastime for the wealthy, or relatively more well-off; marina users are typically high net-worth or upper-middle-income households. Marina usage is heavily correlated with levels of disposable income; typically, older individuals have more disposable capital to spend. The boating space is dominated by older Americans – according to IBISWorld, boat owners aged 48-67 make up for 39% of the market. A wealthier, older customer base that is less sensitive to fluctuations in price allows marinas to push margins – not to mention their increased propensity to spend on services like maintenance, clubhouse facilities, etc.
The ultra-rich is where things start to get very, very interesting. The global superyacht industry is projected to grow from $18.89 billion in 2025 to $32.21 billion in 2035. North America accounts for about 28% of the global market share, with US activity concentrated primarily in South Florida.
Beyond that, yachting holds a presence in the Bay Area and Southern California as well as seasonally in New England (Martha’s Vineyard, Rhode Island, Cape Cod).
For private equity, this is where the money is; superyacht berths aren’t the same as regular berths, as they require deeper water, longer waterways, and advanced fuel and electrical infrastructure. As superyachts infiltrate markets, it puts pressure on marinas to change their berths, offerings, and facilities accordingly. A medium-sized, independently owned marina doesn’t have enough cash to participate in this space – capital-infused, large private equity-backed platforms are often the only ones with enough capital to get involved here.
Boat Owners in the US by Age. Source: IBISWorld
Risk Profile
For better or for worse, there is very little to no perceived risk within the space – outlook on the industry remains generally quite positive. From a real estate perspective, marinas are subject to market phases. But according to an investor, marinas will never be in the phase before recession, hypersupply, because they are so, so hard to build. Environmental regulation is tight, marina construction is expensive and lengthy, and particularly in coastal areas, real estate attuned for marina development is hard to find. So long as boating remains a practice in the US, slips will be in short supply – there will always be more boats than spaces available.
If anything, as noted by an investor, the risk is more about functional obsolescence; boats are evolving faster than marina infrastructure can keep pace. Most marina infrastructure was built decades ago, but as boats become more sophisticated, wider, and larger, they require more than an aging marina can give. Coupled with rising post-COVID costs of construction, and retrofitting these marinas becomes incredibly capital intensive. This is similar to superyachts, but on a smaller scale – again, obsolete infrastructure gives occasion for private equity to step in and rebuild with patience, money and time.
In the long term, though, the concern is the advent of a new boating generation – people who, in 20-30 years, will continue to spend money and utilize the marina. Boating and the marina culture is a luxury – only those with large amounts of excess capital can participate. As the costs of daily life increase, young people simply can’t afford the luxury associated with boats; unless you grew up with boats, you wouldn’t have an interest in the industry. In the words of a leading writer on marinas, “If young people can barely buy a house, why the hell would they buy a boat.” In essence, the local mom and pop marinas are most at risk; only time will tell.
The Four Phases of Real Estate. Source: Mortgage Sandbox
Another perspective
The general consensus seems to be that eventually, independent mom and pops will sell – overrun by larger players that can outspend and outpace them. One adjacent space seems interesting, though; dry marinas, or in other words, inland storage facilities for boats during off-season periods. These businesses thrive off of scale – high stack heights on cheaper real estate allows for significantly more volume than wet slips. As of 2024, the domestic market size for dry stack marinas is estimated to be $390 million – less than 5% of the domestic marina market. Workflow varies depending on the season – during the summertime, owners will pull their boats in and out to marinas, whereas in the wintertime, project-based revenue comes in the form of job lists: maintenance, painting, and oil. Competition within the space is low – in the words of an investor specifically looking at this space, the best way to see it is like a second-hand car dealership. As larger players push the marina industry further, dry-stack facilities benefit from strong tailwinds that drive interest and spending in the boating sector as a whole.
In general, it seems as though larger private equity firms aren’t as interested in investing into this off-water, dry-stack boat storage industry – interestingly enough, reasons include the exact theses aforementioned. Dry-stack facilities, by nature of being inland, aren’t as susceptible to the same supply-demand dynamic; inland real estate isn’t as scarce and certainly isn’t as valuable. As a result, hypersupply is a real concern for the space – oversaturated, low-barrier construction is less resistant to the cycle of real estate. And, in essence, there’s just less money available; boats over 42-feet (including superyachts!) are generally pushed towards wet slips, while the marina consumer base generally skews towards higher net-worth, wealthier individuals. Upside for the off-water slip industry is capped by the proficiency of the on-water slip industry; the dry stack boat storage market may be more fit for the individual searcher, rather than the more capital-infused private equity firm.
US Dry-Stack Market Size. Source: Grand View Research
Final Thoughts
The infiltration of private equity into the marina industry is significant, but has still left more than enough for new investors to dive into. An increased willingness to sell among family-owned marinas is expected as firms continue to consolidate – but it's a bit too reductionistic to frame the space as purely a capital-on-capital battle. The diversification of services, modernization of infrastructure, and investment into the marina as a core node of waterfront culture will differentiate marinas of the past and marinas of the future. Deciding to enter into the industry then becomes a matter of if these multiples will hold – general sentiment seems mixed, as it's hard to tell whether or not the wave of private equity has broken.
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Just 5 years later, after consolidating 37 additional marinas, Sun Communities sold Safe Harbor to Blackstone for $5.65 billion – a whopping 21x FFO multiple and a realized return on purchase price of 2.68x in 5 years.
Private equity is on the hunt –- just last September, reports surfaced that Centerbridge partners was seeking to exit Suntex at a valuation of $4 billion. This April, Stonepeak acquired Southern Marinas from KSL Capital Partners for over $700M. In June, InfraVia Capital Partners agreed to acquire Mediterranean platform D-Marin for €1 - 1.5 billion. And just in August, Blackstone-owned Safe Harbor announced plans to acquire 65-marina platform MarineMax for an all-cash, $1.5B deal. Significant domestic and international activity signal that large-scale acquisition by private equity is here to stay.
Global Marina Acquisitions in the past 10 years. Source: Marina World
The State of Play
The general consensus among buy-side professionals seems to be that marina owners aren’t afraid of external acquisition; an expert in the marina M&A space put it this way – when approached by a broker, 95% of owners will listen, 70% will take the leap of faith, and 50-60% will actually close. He noted how most of the larger, independently owned marinas are dwindling, and fast. Nevertheless, extreme fragmentation still exists – an expert in the space noted how 93-94% of marinas are still mom-and-pop owned out of 12k marinas in the US – leaving over 11k marinas up for grabs.
Domestic market share remains protected, too – the largest 4 players (Safe Harbor, Suntex, MarineMax, and Alliance) make for just 4.4% of the global market – which is valued at around $20 billion. The top 50 operators account for only 20% of industry revenue. The larger North American recreational boating market is valued at $10.52 billion and seems to be on an upward climb. Reports indicate that in 2025, the US marina industry made $7.7 billion in revenue at a historical CAGR of 2.4%; realistically, though, the industry experienced immense growth during COVID (2020: $6.9, 2023: $7.8) and has since flatlined. Boat sales slid down 9.1% in 2024 and another 7.3% in 2025 – a note that though attractive to private equity, the space is still imperfect.
Market Size for North American Boating Market. Source: Market Data Forecast Analysis
Internationally, the approximately $20 billion marina industry varies heavily by continent. It’s fairly quiet in South America and Africa – even still, BR Marinas has a presence in Brazil, and markets in Cape Verde, Morocco, and especially South Africa (Cape Town!) are somewhat prevalent. The Middle East is full of wealth – oriented around rich, luxury boating ex-pats with international itineraries. As for Southeast Asia, the market still needs some time to take off – though countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia have vibrant maritime economies, there isn’t enough capital or interest in the region quite yet. The market in Australia and New Zealand is distinctly separate from the rest of the world; geographic isolation localizes boats and marina design. 85% of the Australian population is next to the coast – they’ve invested in marinas and facilities to cultivate an ingrained boating culture.
And then, there’s Europe, the second-largest marina market in the world. It’s currently projected to grow at a 4.9% CAGR by 2034 – slightly higher than the 4.5% North American figure. Some countries are more boat-centric than others; the space itself is very diverse. Recently, private equity has taken a liking to the Scandinavian countries, especially Norway and Sweden – look at Norvestor’s Marina Group, or Fantasi Marinas. This region has some of the highest boats-per-100,000 inhabitants rates in the world, high demand (25 percent of the population has access to a berth) and strong boating culture.
Countries like the UK are somewhat in the middle, with some activity (Premier Marinas and Aquavista) but not much platform expansion happening. Giant yachting markets include Italy, Greece, Spain and France – Lots of different groups are active in Spain, and one writer described the South of France as a “boating mecca”. Last year, Safe Harbor acquired the 9-marina, superyacht-focused platform Monaco Marine. Room for consolidation in the larger Mediterranean arena still exists – the rise of smaller groups like Balmaris Marinas is yet more evidence for activity in the space. The global marina industry sits on over $1 trillion of prime, waterfront real estate – for places like the South of France, yachting is an economic powerhouse that remains the center of wealthy, high-status lifestyles.
PE firms have recognized that there’s an awful lot of money to be made, particularly when marinas are viewed as mixed use developments – not just a “parking lot for boats”, but as a profit-generating center of coastal lifestyles; think hospitality, restaurants, and retail. They are the anchors of coastal economies. Ultimately, an investment into a coastal marina is an investment into world-class, waterfront real estate; capital expenditures that modernize, technologize, and optimize existing infrastructure pay off in the long run.
Looking for Marinas in your market?
Regulations
By nature of being on the water, marinas are subject to a significant amount of environmental regulations – necessary impediments to business that strengthen the thesis that this industry isn’t for everyone. Marina development is regulated by the US Army Corps of Engineers, who then conduct Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements in preparation for a permit. The Clean Water Act requires marinas to control their pollution output; in other words, manage discharges, stormwater, sewage, and spills appropriately. In a similar sense, EPA regulations promote waterflow-friendly marina designs in an effort to reduce shoreline erosion and habitat destruction. Marinas that perform maintenance also may be subject to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; waste classified as hazardous must be disposed of and noted properly. Environmental regulation remains a high barrier to entry, particularly in relation to the new construction of marinas. Still, day-to-day marina operations are monitored closely by the government.
Unit Economics
From a Unit Economics perspective, it’s easy to see why investors are pushing to consolidate platforms. Take two marinas, both with 200 slips. An independent platform relies heavily on slip revenue, while consolidated platforms lean into service components, such as repairs and maintenance (R&M) and food and beverage (F&B). Consolidation cuts costs where you’d expect: centralized G&A, in part, cuts labor costs, and increased leverage with fuel distributors increases margins to customers. These platform economics allow big players like Safe Harbor or Suntex to scale – outperforming family-owned marinas with ease.
And while most multiples are heavily dependent upon location, size, and what kinds of services that they offer beyond slips. According to CT Acquisitions, “Premium coastal marinas with high occupancy (90%+), strong ancillary revenue (service yard, ship’s store), and clean environmental profile trade at 11-14x EBITDA in 2026. Mid-market regional marinas trade at 8-11x EBITDA. Inland or seasonal marinas trade at 6-9x EBITDA.”
A note: Important to the surge in Marina acquisition is the classification of Marinas as REITs – Real Estate Investment Trusts – throughout the late 2010s. Private Letter rulings issued from 2019 onwards classified floating docks, seawalls, dry storage buildings, and the marina itself as real property – and qualified revenue from slips and storage as REIT income, avoiding entity-level federal corporate tax. For example, if EBT for a given marina is $1 million, then your tax savings are $210k. Note, though, that these savings don’t just disappear – REITs distribute taxable income to shareholders who then pay dividends-based deductions back to the corporation. Within any given marina, services such as fuel, repairs, and maintenance are classified under a Taxable REIT Subsidiary (TRS), and thus any revenue generated from those services are subject to a 21% federal corporate tax. The onset of Safe Harbor’s 2020 deal with Sun Communities (a REIT!) increased public confidence in the REIT thesis and reinforced the fact that marinas are not merely service businesses, but rather powerful and desirable pieces of waterfront real estate.
Investment Thesis
Aside from pure Unit Economics, investors still have strong support from larger, macro industry tailwinds.
1. Supply-demand dynamic
Waterfront real estate is scarce – and desirable. According to an investor in the space, marinas are a perfect mix of “static inventory and infinite demand growth”. It's a low cyclical, high demand industry. In 2024, 56% of marinas reported occupancy rates above 95%, while 26% reported 100% occupancy; the average occupancy rate for any given marina is 95% or higher. While statistics for boat storage isn’t necessarily publicly available, options include marinas, dry-stack storage (indoor facilities), seasonal storage, and home (trailer, driveway, etc.). In some areas there are still more than 10x as many boats as there are slips. Nationally, this also seems to be the case – for an estimated 15.4 million boats (11.8 million registered, 3.6 million unregistered) in the US, there are only 1.1 million slips. The creation of new marina supply is incredibly difficult due to regulation by the Army Corps of Engineers, real estate acquisition, and the capital intensive nature of the endeavor; a marina can’t just be placed anywhere, making those already in place incredibly valuable pieces of real estate.
As such, existing marinas have incredible pricing power over those boat owners; owning most of or all of the marinas in a particular region gives platforms the opportunity to pull levers of monopoly power. If marinas raise prices or tail off on the quality of their business, customers still have little choices elsewhere. Constraints on supply are foundational to this thesis – as one investor puts it, “where else are people going to put their boat?”
Boat Supply vs. Marina Supply, 2024
2. Contracted Cash Flows
Marinas have high visibility into their own revenue – while some agreements are done on a seasonal basis, the average long-term marina slip contract lasts 12 months, making returns consistent and easy to forecast. Strong recurring revenue characteristics exist, due to revenue from wet slips but also due to services such as R&M, fuel, and dry storage. Pair that with high switching costs and sticky customers – marina leases typically show 90% retention – and the inconvenience and expense associated with moving locks in future cash flows for years.
In premium, core coastal markets like California, Florida, or New England, occupancy rates run sky-high. Constrained supply is most associated with confidence in recurring revenues – long waitlists for berths mean that even if one boat owner leaves, another will fill its place. Owners, brokers, and investors frequently name recurring revenue as the top characteristic of any given marina business; from a PE standpoint, financial predictability makes for an attractive sector with few downsides.
A Wealthy, Wealthy Customer Base
Boating is typically seen as a pastime for the wealthy, or relatively more well-off; marina users are typically high net-worth or upper-middle-income households. Marina usage is heavily correlated with levels of disposable income; typically, older individuals have more disposable capital to spend. The boating space is dominated by older Americans – according to IBISWorld, boat owners aged 48-67 make up for 39% of the market. A wealthier, older customer base that is less sensitive to fluctuations in price allows marinas to push margins – not to mention their increased propensity to spend on services like maintenance, clubhouse facilities, etc.
Boat Owners in the US by Age. Source: IBISWorld
The ultra-rich is where things start to get very, very interesting. The global superyacht industry is projected to grow from $18.89 billion in 2025 to $32.21 billion in 2035. North America accounts for about 28% of the global market share, with US activity concentrated primarily in South Florida. Beyond that, yachting holds a presence in the Bay Area and Southern California as well as seasonally in New England (Martha’s Vineyard, Rhode Island, Cape Cod). For private equity, this is where the money is; superyacht berths aren’t the same as regular berths, as they require deeper water, longer waterways, and advanced fuel and electrical infrastructure. As superyachts infiltrate markets, it puts pressure on marinas to change their berths, offerings, and facilities accordingly. A medium-sized, independently owned marina doesn’t have enough cash to participate in this space – capital-infused, large private equity-backed platforms are often the only ones with enough capital to get involved here
Risk Profile
For better or for worse, there is very little to no perceived risk within the space – outlook on the industry remains generally quite positive. From a real estate perspective, marinas are subject to market phases. But according to an investor, marinas will never be in the phase before recession, hypersupply, because they are so, so hard to build. Environmental regulation is tight, marina construction is expensive and lengthy, and particularly in coastal areas, real estate attuned for marina development is hard to find. So long as boating remains a practice in the US, slips will be in short supply – there will always be more boats than spaces available.
The Four Phases of Real Estate. Source: Mortgage Sandbox
If anything, as noted by an investor, the risk is more about functional obsolescence; boats are evolving faster than marina infrastructure can keep pace. Most marina infrastructure was built decades ago, but as boats become more sophisticated, wider, and larger, they require more than an aging marina can give. Coupled with rising post-COVID costs of construction, and retrofitting these marinas becomes incredibly capital intensive. This is similar to superyachts, but on a smaller scale – again, obsolete infrastructure gives occasion for private equity to step in and rebuild with patience, money and time.
In the long term, though, the concern is the advent of a new boating generation – people who, in 20-30 years, will continue to spend money and utilize the marina. Boating and the marina culture is a luxury – only those with large amounts of excess capital can participate. As the costs of daily life increase, young people simply can’t afford the luxury associated with boats; unless you grew up with boats, you wouldn’t have an interest in the industry. In the words of a leading writer on marinas, “If young people can barely buy a house, why the hell would they buy a boat.” In essence, the local mom and pop marinas are most at risk; only time will tell.
An alternative perspective
The general consensus seems to be that eventually, independent mom and pops will sell – overrun by larger players that can outspend and outpace them. One adjacent space seems interesting, though; dry marinas, or in other words, inland storage facilities for boats during off-season periods. These businesses thrive off of scale – high stack heights on cheaper real estate allows for significantly more volume than wet slips. As of 2024, the domestic market size for dry stack marinas is estimated to be $390 million – less than 5% of the domestic marina market. Workflow varies depending on the season – during the summertime, owners will pull their boats in and out to marinas, whereas in the wintertime, project-based revenue comes in the form of job lists: maintenance, painting, and oil. Competition within the space is low – in the words of an investor specifically looking at this space, the best way to see it is like a second-hand car dealership. As larger players push the marina industry further, dry-stack facilities benefit from strong tailwinds that drive interest and spending in the boating sector as a whole.
US Dry-Stack Market Size. Source: Grand View Research
In general, it seems as though larger private equity firms aren’t as interested in investing into this off-water, dry-stack boat storage industry – interestingly enough, reasons include the exact theses aforementioned. Dry-stack facilities, by nature of being inland, aren’t as susceptible to the same supply-demand dynamic; inland real estate isn’t as scarce and certainly isn’t as valuable. As a result, hypersupply is a real concern for the space – oversaturated, low-barrier construction is less resistant to the cycle of real estate. And, in essence, there’s just less money available; boats over 42-feet (including superyachts!) are generally pushed towards wet slips, while the marina consumer base generally skews towards higher net-worth, wealthier individuals. Upside for the off-water slip industry is capped by the proficiency of the on-water slip industry; the dry stack boat storage market may be more fit for the individual searcher, rather than the more capital-infused private equity firm.
Final Thoughts
The infiltration of private equity into the marina industry is significant, but has still left more than enough for new investors to dive into. An increased willingness to sell among family-owned marinas is expected as firms continue to consolidate – but it's a bit too reductionistic to frame the space as purely a capital-on-capital battle. The diversification of services, modernization of infrastructure, and investment into the marina as a core node of waterfront culture will differentiate marinas of the past and marinas of the future. Deciding to enter into the industry then becomes a matter of if these multiples will hold – general sentiment seems mixed, as it's hard to tell whether or not the wave of private equity has broken.