INSIDE

Development co. to buy marina

Seattle area development company Cobalt Properties has entered into a contract to buy the local marina, subject to conditions that Cobalt principal Stephen MacKay has been on the Point trying to resolve.
“I’ve known of the Point Roberts marina for years. I’ve sailed out of here,” MacKay said. “I approached them and it’s for all their holdings down there.”

P.R. Marina Limited Partnership, based in Hawaii, has owned the Point Roberts Marina Resort and approximately 100 acres of surrounding properties since 1989, as part of what current general manager Lorraine Taki called a family of companies. “We own and manage approximately 30 different entities and have offices and property in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, San Francisco, Oahu, Kauai, and the big island of Hawaii,” Taki said. Under a confidentiality agreement Taki said she could not disclose details of the proposed sale.

Bound by the same agreement MacKay said he couldn’t talk about the proposed contract except that “we have sufficient time to put what we need together.” He was more outspoken when it came to his company’s plans if they bought the marina.

“For me the timing is right for the development of the Point Roberts marina properties,” he said. “Where are you going to buy into something where you get as much bang for your buck as down here?”
The yacht basin would be the center of a mixed-use development that would grow under a master plan as market forces dictated.

“The marina itself is the focus,” MacKay said. “They really aren’t making marinas anymore and this is an opportunity to take one of the best marinas in the country to the next level. There’s no idea of moving anything that’s there now but of enhancing it.” The company will hire a marina consultant, he said, to evaluate the conformation and condition of existing facilities. Asked if they would consider a reconfiguration to replace under-utilized smaller slips with in-demand larger ones, MacKay said “we’re bringing in the experts and we’ll take their advice and look at the market.”

The next step, MacKay said, will be to look at the undeveloped marina holdings along Simundson Drive, Marina Drive, and adjacent to the airport. “I think it’s going to be integral to any plan to have a higher level of activity there,” MacKay said. “Towns that have a central meeting place are wonderful and I think the marina can be that.”
He envisions more recreational amenities, perhaps a gym, a sailing school or a dive shop, blended with restaurants, retail and housing. ”If there was a very good operation wanting to come in and do a spa/hotel I’d be very open to it,” MacKay said. “Anything that will bring people down and keep them down.”

Multi-family projects have been the core of Cobalt Properties since it was founded in 1990, and in the first 10 years the company focused on affordable housing. Since 2000, MacKay said, “we started doing more of our own mixed-use projects,” the most recent being the Belcara at Lakeland apartments in Auburn.

The housing component of a Cobalt development at the marina would be “for all walks of life,” MacKay said, from affordable to exclusive, for young families and retired people. “We’ve found ultimately that kind of thing most successful,” he said.

In order to make any development project move forward, MacKay said he will have to secure utility access under some challenging conditions, which he is currently looking into.

Cobalt has been meeting with the water district and other local developers such as Stanton Northwest, the group looking to build up to 100 homes on property west of Lily Point, MacKay said. They had discussed participating in a proposal for developers to build additional storage for the water district in exchange for access to the water connections that additional storage made available, removing development pressure from the upcoming allotment of limited water connections. “I can’t commit to anything until we own the property,” he said.

MacKay also said that if Cobalt were to acquire the marina properties they would benefit from a public sewer. However, he said they would only be supporting the petition for a public sewer after further research. “I don’t know a lot about it but I do know those are serious dollars,” he said.