Developing Marina Campground / Community Ideas???
 

I'm looking into developing a Riverfront Community or Campground on the Cheseapeake. The easiest route would be to follow through with the current plan which has 18 lots on 77 acres. Most lots are 1 acre, rest open space. Looks like a can get 44 boat slips also. The homes and parcels would be owned by the individuals. Homes would probably have to be in the $500k and up price range to work.

I think this is a great opportunity to creat a cool private boating community.

I have thoughts of going with the campground route, smaller cottages either for sale or rent and RV camp parking.

What have you guys seen out there for cool boating communities like this? I am searching for ideas and locations I can research.

What do you think would be preferable, smaller privately owned home community or cottage R/V??

I should be able to have the 44 boat slips and thinking of storage building as well.

Docks with boat lifts are also a cool idea, create a high performance meca specifically created to cater to boaters who would like their boat on lift in private community

Thoughts and ideas appreciated

Nothing huh, was hoping to get some feedback from our community.

Does anyone know of nice cottage stlye boating marina campground?

Here are two in the greater Central VA area that are pretty successful:

https://www.facebook.com/Rockahock-C...4087823972382/

http://www.bethpagecamp.com/

A. Build/sell then take the cash and run before the housing market slows down again.
B. Be cautious that powerboats and 500K homes go together. Some people will hate loud powerboats
C. Campgrounds in that area are going to be seasonal and once again powerboaters and RV owners might not mesh.

It seems the only place loud powerboats are welcome is LOTO! :D

I agree with the above... scale it down... make it a mecca, price it to keep the squids away, and it could be sucessful.

Make sure YOU CAN get that many slips and the storage. The government (

And the Texas Shootout!

Never heard of a noise ticket in the lower San Jacinto River or Galveston Bay

We have a powerboat and also a motorcoach. The problem... Most of the campgrounds around the Chesapeake are either too small to fit my bus in or they are redneck central. No offense to those that enjoy that type of thing, just not my cup of tea. Plus not sure how many go fast guys you will attract at the Chesapeake unless you have lifts or a forklift and rack building.

Check out Swan Bay Resort in the 1000 Islands. Marina with a launch, pool , cottages and such to rent or purchase and RV lots etc.

I like the looks of this

Place looks really simple.....cottages are A frame micro home/trailer looking places. Other than water/sewer and a pool the infrastructure isn't real bad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmwvaCT971w

It looks like that at first, but that was a $7-9MM project.

So even at 7mm that is a lot of campsite rentals to simply recover your infrastructure costs, nevermind land purchase/carrying costs/operations. Being in a seasonal climate (not too many winter campers out there) you essentially have to make your money in 6 months or less!


Look at the rates in June.....$33-70 a night for a class A site.....Even at $50 a night you are going to raise $1800 a month per site if no vacancy. Cabins are $150-250 and deck boats are $250 a day. That looks like a really long payback on 7mm+....... Looks worse if gas returns to $4 a gallon and campers stay home!

I agree, I am thinking the numbers are inflated from what I have read about the project. My guess is that was for the publicity of the project. Thats a lot of $$$ for the infrastructure. Purchase of the property was $1MM.

7mm parked somewhere earning 5% is 350K a year with a lot less risk than a new campground with low monthly rates. I would think you would be better off developing that parcel for waterfront homes and dockage for the non waterfront owners. I suspect the financing and city variances would be easier to obtain as nobody wants trailer parks in their backyard! :D

Trailer parks are great "land plays" as in rent the lots and then 20 years later sell the land for big money to a developer and evict the trailers. 2 recently sold in S Florida and the tenants reached out to the media telling sad tales how they are being thrown out after all these years.....Didn't change anything, both parks got cleared out. One sold for 29 million and the other was 14 million.

The "hook" for trailer parks is that the trailers can't be moved after they are 10 years old so once the old people move in and buy the trailer they essentially can't leave after the 10 year point. They essentially become renters for life. My uncle was looking at one in NH years ago (more of a summer camp type place) with a small marina/fuel/ship store. It was a 7 month deal, they shut off the water/electric for the winter. He passed, his buddy took the deal. The reality is it was a lot of work for very little money considering the money that was tied up in the project. His buddy was looking for a semi retirement type income but found the months he really wanted to do stuff were the same months his attention was needed at the campground. Last I heard it was back up for sale.

Swan Bay is two miles down the road from me. He's done an awesome job in there but it will take forever to get any ROI with our short seasons.