Parks Tacoma wants this marina back. That means 120 boaters, liveaboards must go
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Parks Tacoma asked Tacoma Yacht Club to ensure tenants vacate by Oct. 1, 2026.
- About 120 boats, 18 boathouses and 10 liveaboards face displacement at Breakwater Marina.
- Parks Tacoma is considering new commercial tenancy and expansion of public access.
The sea rocked the 1983 sailboat “Miss Shift” on Tuesday as 87-year-old George W. Dockstader steadied himself with a tanned hand. Dockstader has lived on and off boats for nearly 30 years, seven of them at Breakwater Marina, near the Point Defiance Ferry Terminal.
By September, he might have nowhere to live. Dockstader and 119 other tenants at 5401 N. Waterfront Dr. recently learned they will have to leave the marina next to Dune Peninsula and the Tacoma Yacht Club.
Parks Tacoma owns the land from which the marina operates and has leased the property to the Tacoma Yacht Club since 1964 “for the Expansion, Operation and Maintenance of Boat Moorage and Related Facilities ...,” according to court records. The Tacoma Yacht Club has subleased part of the marina to third parties since 1972, the most recent being Breakwater Marina Inc., per court records.
The sublease with Breakwater ends Sept. 30, according to a copy shared with The News Tribune by Parks Tacoma. Emails obtained by The News Tribune show Parks Tacoma is considering future operations for the marina, including commercial tenancy and opportunities to expand public access and on-water recreation.
That’s come as a surprise to Breakwater tenants, some of whom said they didn’t learn they would have to vacate the marina and dismantle their boathouses until recently. As previously reported by The News Tribune, there’s a shortage of boat slips in the Tacoma area, and marinas nearby have wait lists that are months or years long.
“I’ve already been out hunting for a place to live. Foss Landing has a three-year wait list for parking the boat and eight years for a liveaboard. In eight years, I’ll be 95. So forget that,” Dockstader said. “I’ve just been here seven years, but we have one tenant here now with a big boat, he’s been here 22 years.”
Breakwater Marina owner Michael Marchetti told The News Tribune on Thursday there are 18 boathouses and 10 liveaboards at the marina. A total of 120 boats moor there, in addition to some marine-related businesses. Tenants have access to power, water, restrooms and showers, he said.
In a statement shared Thursday, Parks Tacoma said it is working with stakeholders (including Breakwater Marina and the Tacoma Yacht Club) “to determine if a temporary lease extension is feasible so we can continue seeking solutions that meet the long-term interest of the District to provide a safe and welcoming location for marine-related services to the Tacoma community.”
When asked to respond to other questions, including that the Tacoma Yacht Club says it is not its responsibility to return the marina vacant in September, spokesperson Stacia Glenn said Parks Tacoma “cannot comment due to pending and threatened litigation.”
Vacant by October?
Tacoma Yacht Club Board chair Joe Kabel told The News Tribune on Thursday that April was the first time it was aware that Parks Tacoma expected the club to return the Breakwater Marina property in a vacant condition by Oct. 1. Kabel said that detail was not in the original lease the club signed.
The terms of the master lease and sublease do not appear to explicitly call for the marina to be returned to Parks Tacoma vacant, according to copies of the lease agreements sent to The News Tribune by Parks Tacoma.
The Yacht Club says it’s not its responsibility to evict tenants since Parks is the landowner. Kabel said the club told Parks Tacoma if it wanted to justify its stance legally, it should do so, “and they haven’t.”
Marchetti has owned Breakwater Marina for 32 years and said, “It never occurred to me that Parks would want an empty marina.”
“My lease refers back to the master lease, which basically said that the Yacht Club has to hand over an operating marina. There’s nothing secretive about it,” he said. “There was nothing really to tell the tenants, because, again, that was never contemplated by me or the Yacht Club that it would be an empty marina they wanted.”
Marchetti told the Parks Board during a board meeting May 11 that Parks Tacoma would lose about $20,000 in net income if the marina was kept empty in October. The value of the 18 boathouses there is around $800,000, “and now [owners are] going to spend $8,000 to $10,000 to tear them down,” he said.
“Liveaboards, that’s another issue. I understand you don’t want people living in your parks, but this is a completely different situation. I know that in the past there’s been discussion about making transient moorage there. We’re going to have people spending the night anyway,” Marchetti said. “The liveaboard community is your best security asset there is … not only for people but [for] the boats, … It can stop a lot of problems.”
Emails shared with The News Tribune show Parks Tacoma staff told the Tacoma Yacht Club on April 6 that it expected the marina to be returned vacant by October 1.
“As part of this transition, Parks Tacoma will not be assuming any of the existing tenant leases or arrangements,” George Schaaf, the director of Parks Tacoma’s Parks and Recreation Department, told Kabel on April 6. “Accordingly, TYC will need to ensure that all tenants have vacated and that all personal property is removed from the premises prior to October 1, 2026. This includes, without limitation, all vessels, boathouses, commercial tenant operations and associated property such as tools, equipment and debris.”
Schaaf wrote in the email, “Parks Tacoma is currently evaluating future operations for the marina, including slip configuration, pricing, commercial tenancy and opportunities to expand public access and on-water recreation. This planning process may also identify necessary capital improvements.”
In another email sent April 6, Joe Brady, the deputy director of Parks Tacoma’s Parks and Recreation Department, told Kabel, “The removal of TYC’s existing subtenants is an important step for the District to effectively begin our management of the marina. … As a public facility, the new marina will not have any liveaboards or privately owned boathouses — these tenants need to find alternative accommodations before the October 1st turnover date.”
Kabel told The News Tribune there are a couple Tacoma Yacht Club members who store their boats at Breakwater Marina who will also have to leave by Oct. 1. The Tacoma Yacht Club will try to accommodate folks who want to move to the Yacht Club’s marina, but boaters would have to pay moorage fees and membership fees, Kabel said. The typical monthly membership fee is $200 or more a month and the initiation fee is $3,000, he said. The current waiting list, which varies depending on boat size and type, is months or years, and the club doesn’t accept liveaboards, although a few are grandfathered in, Kabel said.
“Tenants did not have a lot of notice, relatively speaking … given the fact that there are so many full-year leases over there, boats that are there all year round, as opposed to seasonal,” Kabel said. “Breakwater Marina has tried to identify other slips that might be available for some of these folks to go to, and it’s not matching the demand. I think [not giving] a few months, five or six months notice — given the current supply of slips, and also the time it takes to find those, especially in the summer — is troublesome. I don’t know what the solution is.”
Kabel said the Breakwater Marina is older, and if Parks Tacoma wants to build a contemporary operating marina, it would require some infrastructure upgrades, “And I don’t think that’s wrong.”
When asked whether current tenants would have to dismantle or demolish their boathouses at the Breakwater Marina at their own cost, Kable said he doesn’t know, noting there are state environmental restrictions designating where someone can move and station a boathouse.
“And then the other part is just, not all boathouses will survive a trip from here to way over there. They’re basically a shed on floats, some nicer than others. It’s not as easy as it sounds,” Kabel said. “And so I don’t have the answer on what happens or who pays.”
‘You can’t get anybody to answer’
Toni Froehling, 75, has owned a boathouse at Breakwater Marina for more than five years. He’s been leasing it to David Russel for a couple of months, to store a 1986 diesel trawler he is renovating.
Froehling’s boathouse is large and sought-after: 60 feet long and 20 feet wide. He’s listed it for sale for $65,000, but it’s essentially worthless and a liability if he can’t move it somewhere else.
“When I was approached by a couple of older guys walking up the dock that were damn near in tears because they’re going to be thrown off the dock as liveaboards, that got to me,” Froehling said. “The fact that these guys would be, Jesus Christ, without a house? That really got to me. And then the fact that you’ve got that nobody is being honest about anything. You can’t get anybody to answer any questions.”
Russel told The News Tribune on Tuesday he heard about the lease ending by word of mouth. He said it’s stressful not knowing what’s going to happen and all he hears is rumors.
“I’m a new guy here, so I don’t really know the management of the marina. I’m just kind of stuck in the middle,” he said. “This is one of the last marinas around that’s kind of a little bit more working class than the Yacht Club. That used to be the way things were. And I really enjoy that aspect of it, not completely yachty. You can see me, I’m not a millionaire guy, and I don’t care. But this is not a snotty place, and a lot of marinas, they take them over, and they turn into condos.”
When asked to respond to tenants’ concerns, Kabel said the Tacoma Yacht Club is trying to be part of the solution.
“We want to try to help if we can. And what that looks like is still uncertain. We don’t want to lose boaters in the community,” he said. “We don’t want to see other boaters lose what they have.”
This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
