The odds were stacked against them to rebuild.
Haythem Dawlett, founder and principal of Legend Communities, says he was given about a five percent chance that the Cove Harbor Marina and Drystack, that was home to about $30 million worth of boats, could be rebuilt after the massive storm.
“That first day when I got here, it was a disaster. I didn’t even know where to start, where to begin, and where to finish,” said Dawlett.
A year and a half later, he beat the odds.
“Not only did we rebuild it, we have re-branded it. It is now called Cove Harbor Yacht Club and Boat House Resort. We are adding 42 RV slips that are class A for buses and a 50-60 unit high-end “Airstream Hotel,” with a yacht club building that will house a fitness center, events area, a pool, and those will all be accessed by our existing tenants, which are in the wet slips. So we have taken this whole concept and taken it to a completely different level,” said Dawlett.
The price tag to rebuild both 75 foot buildings, that house more than 600 boats, is just over $12,000,000.
“Same size, we reconfigured it. We have a total of 470 slips. Originally we had right around 400. So we were able to reconfigure everything, maximize the spacing; we did a lot of things more calculating, more precise. We re-engineered the buildings, and now both buildings now rate to 150 mile an hour windstorm rating,” said Dawlett.
Dawlett says the new addition to the marina is expected to be completed in the next 6 months.
“Like I said, we have the support of our bankers, the support of our community, and it has been an important character on me. If I hadn’t heard it once, I have probably heard it 50 times, they didn’t think we would ever rebuild, and we did,” said Dawlett.
Cove Harbor Yacht Club and Boat House Resort represents one of the single-largest commercial fishing operations with more than 600 boats either stored in the drystacks or the wet slips.
The newly constructed Cove Harbor will be the largest full-service marina and drystack in the area, and offer 143 monthly/yearly wet slip spaces and 30 daily wet slips.
Amenities planned for the future include a 50- to 60-unit high-end “Airstream Hotel,” an event center, full-service boat mechanical operations and showroom, and other related boat services.
