"HK" wrote in message
...
Wayne.B wrote:
On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:51:15 GMT, "NOYB" wrote:

The marina at Wiggins Pass had the only full service marina with travel
lift between Naples Bay and Fort Myers Beach.

It was a shame when that closed.

Absolutely. As competition dwindles the yards that are left will be
able to charge as much as they want and wait times for haul outs will
get longer. Even now it's like trying to get an appointment with a
Florida dermatologist.


When my father died, I had to decide whether I wanted to "inherit and run"
his marina in Milford, CT, or sell it. I gave it a full minute's worth of
thought, and then told our family lawyer, "sell it." My father died in the
early Spring. We immediately notified the customers the marina would be
closing the day after labor day. We had a buyer in early summer, and
closed in October of that year. The next spring, the marina building was
demolished, the dockage was sold off, and construction began on condos.

Never once regretted the decision to sell. Never went back to see how the
project turned out.

Gave less than a minute's real thought to selling the boat store, which
was in a separate location. Once the inventory was sold off, the store was
put up for sale. The property sold, the store was razed, and there's a
strip mall there now.

I just wish that more people in your situation considered selling it to
someone who wanted to buy the marina and keep it as a marina.

Usually these sales take place behind the scenes, and it'd be nice if the
seller actually spent some time to find a buyer who chose to preserve the
business that his parents built.

In the case of the marina at Wiggins Pass, a large developer (Eco-Group) out
of Tampa bought the property before anybody else even knew it was for sale.
The company that ran the marina operation also has a large marina on Marco
Island, but they were leasing the land in Naples. They would have bought
that property in a New York minute if it was offered to them, but it was
never offered to them.

The county tried to buy the property to keep it running as a marina, but the
buyer/developer said that it wasn't for sale "at any price".