So I hadn't got anything from Blue Lagoon Marina regarding summer dockage, then I noticed some odd changes on their website. So I decided to take a drive out to the Marina only to find the gate pad locked and a sign on it with no number for WayPointe Marina. There's an access number but it's just for Blaz. Anyone have any idea what's going on over there?
Waypointe Marina?
The_Cap
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4,636 Posts
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Here is the link to the facebook page
Waypointe Marina Facebook Page
Good Luck!
[/quote]
This is a post from their page
"WayPointe Marina It's the sister company of Blaz Marine so it will be their crew as well as new hires come late winter, so you can expect quality as well as convenience for your boat and boating experience."
Joined
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2,154 Posts
Here is the link to the facebook page
Waypointe Marina Facebook Page
Good Luck!
[/quote]
This is a post from their page
"WayPointe Marina It's the sister company of Blaz Marine so it will be their crew as well as new hires come late winter, so you can expect quality as well as convenience for your boat and boating experience."
[/quote]
They still haven't called me back
Here is the link to the facebook page
Waypointe Marina Facebook Page
Good Luck!
[/quote]
This is a post from their page
"WayPointe Marina It's the sister company of Blaz Marine so it will be their crew as well as new hires come late winter, so you can expect quality as well as convenience for your boat and boating experience."
[/quote]
They still haven't called me back
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Just wait till you launch your boat next year and get a new swim platform!!! You'll be a happy camper then!
Joined
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1,094 Posts
Here is the link to the facebook page
Waypointe Marina Facebook Page
Good Luck!
[/quote]
This is a post from their page
"WayPointe Marina It's the sister company of Blaz Marine so it will be their crew as well as new hires come late winter, so you can expect quality as well as convenience for your boat and boating experience."
[/quote]
They still haven't called me back
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I believe Dave Blaz has had his workshop in the building at Blue Lagoon. It seems he's now also managing for George Lukas. Seems like a good relationship to me. Also, Dave Blaz just took over a small (aprox 25 well) marina on South River, that used to be Harrison Marine, run by Jeff Henderson selling repo boats. That marina has been owned by Gordon Fox, from Fox Manufacturing next door, for as long as I can remember. (50+ years). Burr Sailboats rented there in the 80's & 90's, run by Hugh (Burr) Rugeronie who, by the way, just passed away last week. Jeff Henderson rented from Fox after that selling repo boats until just last year, when he decided NOT to renew his lease. I know Jeff very well. I'm sure he made literally millions and was even featured on Discovery Channel show, called "Repo Man, Stealing for a Living" According to Jeff, the boat repo market, has virtually dried up to the point that it's not even worth being in that business any more. Jeff made great money confiscating boats, securely storing them for the banks, winterizing them, shrink wrapping them, and of course the commissions on selling them to the general public. Jeff moved Harrison Marine about a mile down South river road, to a non-waterfront office near Jefferson, where he's in the process of closing down the business completely. Blaz is Fox's new tenant. Deep water access via Clinton river. Boat hoist capable of up to about 40 ft sailboats. Large totally fenced dry storage area across the street (on the lake side of South river rd).
Klicki's post indicates he's moved to Walnut Street in Clinton Twp. I'm very familiar with that old warehouse. It's near Joy & Gratiot. Not the best of neighborhoods, but, I'm sure the boats stored there could care less. The rent has always been real cheap for the square footage of the place.
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Here is the link to the facebook page
Waypointe Marina Facebook Page
Good Luck!
[/quote]
From the phone numbers & posts on the Waypoint FB page, it looks like Waypoint IS Blaz. Just a new name for the new management company now renting slips at Lukas. Let's face it, Luckas will always be Lukas.
The reason Klicki (or even the Lukas family for that matter) let it get so bad, is due to the extremely high cost of any type of waterfront renovations. Only about 1/3 of the wells are even usable, and that's because they share the Belle Maer entrance channel. The rest have to exit via no real marked channel at all on the South side of Lukas. There's a shallow trench there, but the only markings I've ever noticed were some floating plastic jugs tied to bricks.
To make the rest of the wells viable, a proper channel would need to be dredged, legitimate "privately maintained" markers purchased & installed (with all the government red tape needed). This doesn't even consider the majority of wells & fairways themselves within that South part of the marina that need dredging. Dredging is one of the most costly items for marinas today. It's also the least appreciated improvement because your customers won't fully appreciate something they can't physically see. Digging out the bottom of the lake is only about 1/3 the total cost of dredging. The other 2/3 is for trucking away and dumping the spoils at state and federally approved landfills. With the higher water levels of the '80's, is just wasn't an issue. Today, there'd be at least $2 Million cost to dredge within the wells & fairways of Lukas, and provide a legitimate entrance channel to the southern part of the island.
The above doesn't even touch on docks, pilings, seawalls, electrical, "potable" water distribution system, facility security and parking lots. Paved parking lots are a double edge sword. Tenants love the cleanliness of them, but the environment hates the pollution they cause, especially in a marina environment. They're an enormous expense to build properly, and Harrison Twp won't let it be done any other way. You start by getting DEQ drainage permits. If granted, you spend a couple hundred grand installing catch basins and a drainage system. Then you excavate about 2 feet of existing material, whatever that happens to be. Next comes expensive GeoGrid fabric to hold your expensive new asphalt in place. Fill with varying degrees of crushed concrete, and finally finish with (two layers) of road grade asphalt. Remember, you plan to winter store 10-40,000 pound boats on this new surface. Oh, by the way, you wouldn't spend a dime on a parking lot, until you installed new seawalls to prevent it from eroding back into the lake. The biggest problem with hard surface parking lots in marinas, is that they act like a giant funnel when it rains, carrying all the sanding debris & other contaminates into the adjacent waterways. Belle Maer has a reclamation tank at their hoist wells, to contain all the bottom paint that's power washed off during haulout. That's another huge expense someone has to pay for.
So, here's the analysis:
$ 500,000 minimum for seawall replacement
500,000 minimum for piling & dock (catwalk) replacement
2,000,000 for dredging marina & south entrance
1,000,000 for parking lot and grounds improvements
Seasonal workers hired by guys like Blaz & Klicki aren't capable of this type of work. You're lucky if you get them to cut the weeds.
Summer & winter boat storage revenues probably just barely cover manager & worker salaries, real estate taxes, insurance, & utilities. Don't expect anything extra to be allocated for any major improvements, at least not in the near future.
There aren't quite 200 wells at Lukas. But, even if there were, based on what "dock-o-minium wells currently sell for at a facility like Belle Maer, you could easily purchase 200 wells for $4,000,000.
This is why there has been virtually NO development in the recent past. The cost to develop any property, is far more than what it's worth after completion.
If Lukas was worth $4 Million, after spending $4 Million to put it back in shape, that means, the property, in its' current condition, is simply worthless.
Defever knew this when he tried to get approval for a night club on that property. Unless you could count on the huge profits from selling booze to boaters, it wasn't worth even trying to build a business out of operating that property as a marina. Defever had an agreement (called option) to purchase Luckas, but he backed out after Harrison Twp denied his development requests.
Today's waterfront reality is governed by "Mother Nature". Most of this infrastructure was developed & prospered during the high water of the '80's. If just 1/2 of the water we lost 20 yrs ago, came back, it would save the $2,000,000 dredging cost associated with making Lukas viable again. Of course, you'd still have the other costs mentioned above to be anywhere close to attracting boaters from Bell M or Mac R's.
By the way, the only reason Belle Maer succeeded (& continues to do so today) was because of perfect timing, and an ingenious plan. Marc & Eric got 1/2 of their development cost back through the sale of approximately 400 Condo Wells. Those well owners now continue to also contribute $2-3000 per year for the real estate taxes associated with their individual wells, plus monthly marina (I mean association) management fees, plus Hoisting, bottom wash & shoring fees for storing their own boats, on their own, common area of their condo association property, plus shared cost of marina security, as well as other infrastructure items like maintaining the pool, bath houses and facility entrance channels from the lake. Belle Maer has a captive audience of over 800 boat owners to feed profits to their repair shop employees, gas dock and convenience store business, ect.
I mention perfect timing, because shortly after Belle Maer pulled off the perfect storm (lol), mac rays fell flat on their financial faces with a similar concept.
I truly respect any entrepreneur who puts his money where his mouth is, and sticks his financial a$$ way out there for free market enterprise. But the seasonal nature of the marina business here on the great lakes makes dreamin' over cocktails a pretty unrealistic challenge.
good luck to all newcomers.
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Informative post Lightfoot.
I enjoyed the read and history.
Mike.
I enjoyed the read and history.
Mike.
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I got a pm from the folks at Blaz about this. It seems like they're truly trying to make some sort of difference. After driving through there yesterday, I just don't know where anyone would start?
They're talking about putting NUMBERS on the boatwells!
I truly wish them luck.
They're talking about putting NUMBERS on the boatwells!
I truly wish them luck.
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2,154 Posts
They've been posting quite abit on face book, asking for suggestions. I've thrown a few realistic ones out there, like tearing down hill billy town. (ie getting rid of the mismatched tents and Gazeebos) They keep talking about some new proto type dock, I don't know what revolutionary new dock they plan on putting on those ancient pilings. They also posted that "we're open 9-5" To which I responded, that's also when most of your customers are at work. Sounds like they have good intentions, and I hope they really make a good go at it. We'll see when the smoke clears.
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Dave K never saw anything other than through dreams with cocktails. The Luka family would have been happy for Dave to re-invest the profits back into the marina, but that depended on Dave's ability to produce income and keep expenses (like his own personal salary) low. If you know Dave, you know he's always been a high maintenance guy.
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It really bothers me to see the way everyone is gossiping about this situation. Dave did his best to run that marina, improve it, as well as keep himself from loosing his investment. Did you happen to step foot on that property when he took out the lease? It was 100 times worse than it is now. Yes, the place is not the nicest, but that marina needs atleast over a million in improvements to look like the other marinas around. Who in their right mind would actually invest that amount of capital into something they will never own? Especially in a small town like Harrison Township, where the return would take years. Yes, we all live in a nice community, but lets face it, the economy is not the best. So trying to get a return on that sort of investment would take forever in this market. Next, as for the people saying he did nothing around the marina. I have to call bull on that. Look at all the business's around us. How many of them did the OWNER of the business actually come to try to solve problems, issues or disputes himself? Most people send a manager or another employee for that. NOT Dave. He would come to you personally, and make sure your situation was resolved to the best of his ability, and make you happy. That man would bend over backwards to make his customers as happy as he could. Blaz taking over the marina and negotiation behind his back was a shock, but I bet you the outcome will be the same. No one in their right mind will continue to invest and invest into something they will never own. This property needs to be taken back over by the owner and renovated, or it needs to be sold to someone who will OWN it and have the stability and safety of owning it to invest in it. Blaz will realize just as Dave did how much it will cost to get that place where it could be. Also, Dave offered a lease to buy, it was not accepted. He probably would have turned the profits back into the origional investment had he owned the property. Half the improvements he attempted were shut down by the county anyways.
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I was told by Blaz last week that they are getting rid of all of the mis-matched tents, refrigerators and over-sized decks.
He says that his big problem is (as already stated) that he does not have a contact list of the current well renters. I was contacted by email because I was a Blaz customer. I did do a shout out on face book to tell any current well renters to call Dave. ***He should prioritize calling those back who have called him :-/
Blaz also said they are supposed to clean up the property and move the slew of 'dead' boats away from the wells. I hope this happens. While I have no real complaints to speak of. (I get what I pay for). Any move to clean up the place will be appreciated by me.
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