More than 100 boat owners are scrambling to find new moorage for their vessels this week after a longtime Hylebos Waterway marina announced it intends to shut down Sept. 30.
Ole and Charlie’s Marina at 4224 Marine View Drive notified tenants last week by letter that its owners had decided to close the 36-year-old business.
“It has been the worst year in the 36 years of our business,” the marina owners, the Olson and Curran families, wrote to customers.
“We have tried to stay open for our good customers and loyal employees with jobs to operate with a reasonable priced moorage and dry storage berthing facility. After operating with minimal staff and cutting wherever, it still isn’t enough,” the owners said.
“Without the security of a long-term lease, we cannot stay open. Ole and Charlie’s 36-year operation must end. It is sad day for us,” they told customers.
Part of the marina property is owned by the Port of Tacoma. The remainder is owned by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, which operates the adjacent Chinook Landing Marina.
Both the port and the tribe said they’ve been talking with the marina owner for months about a lease extension. The marina’s lease with the port expired at the end of last year. The port has continued the lease on a month-to-month basis, said port spokeswoman Tara Mattina.
The tribe offered the marina owners a 50 percent reduction in their rent, said Kelly Croman, general counsel for Marine View Ventures, the tribe’s economic development arm. The marina owners said they had not been able to reach a satisfactory lease extension agreement with the port and the tribe. The tribe ultimately will become owner of the whole marina property under a land swap deal.
Under that agreement, the tribe and the port agreed to exchange property on the Tacoma Tideflats to make their respective land holdings more useful. The tribe has owned part of the marina land since the 1988 Puyallup Land Claims Settlement.
The port purchased the remainder of the land for $7.2 million several years ago.
A critical blow to the marina was Tacoma Power’s decision to shut off power to the marina’s boathouses last December.
The power company told the marina the boathouse wiring didn’t meet code standards. The marina owners said bids to replace that wiring approached $300,000. The power shutdown cost the marina about a third of its business, the owners said.
For some boat owners, the forced relocation will involve finding new moorage for their boats. For others, the task could be more complicated. Several tenants own their own large metal floating boathouses at the marina.
Finding new locations for those boathouses could be difficult in a marina market where boathouse locations are scarce, said local marina owners.
John Gillie: 253-597-8663 john.gillie@thenewstribune.com
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