Point Roberts Marina officially changes hands

By Meg Olson

The Point Roberts marina is now officially under new ownership.
“It closed on March 22,” said Stephen MacKay of Cobalt Properties. Despite the deal being sealed, MacKay said he could not discuss the sale price or any other details of the sale until they became public record in approximately 30 days, as part of his group’s contract with the former owners of the resort. P.R. Marina Limited Partnership, based out of Hawaii, has owned the Point Roberts Marina Resort and surrounding properties since 1989.

“That was their deal and I don’t honestly know why, post-closing, it would be important,” MacKay said.

Subsequently, the Whatcom County treasurers office issued a press release regarding the sale and listed the sale price at $14,971,300.
MacKay said the status quo would reign at the marina while they worked with industry experts on a path into the property’s future. “We may have to do some fine tuning but no radical changes until we have a plan,” he said, which they anticipate having ready in two to three months.

“It could be absolutely huge. There’s absolutely nothing small about that resort,” MacKay said. ‘If others feel about the property the way I do I don’t think it will be difficult to put together a really first class project.” In addition to the area now developed around the marina basin, the resort includes approximately 110 undeveloped acres.

If the plan for the undeveloped property now in Cobalt’s hands is primarily single-family homes, MacKay said the project would run in the tens of millions of dollars. If the focus is more on hotels, condominiums and recreational amenities, the price tag will likely be in the hundreds of millions.

MacKay said the marina would remain the centerpiece, and would likely be upgraded to include larger slips.

“There are really two routes you can go; start slow and small and see what happens or put into play some of your more important infrastructure and then let the housing move forward,” MacKay said. “That’s my preference but marinas and resorts are a special thing and I want to look to the experts.” Previous Cobalt Properties projects have been primarily housing.

MacKay said that once they have a plan in place he expects to be able to implement it quickly, since the previous owners have kept most of the environmental permitting in place for undeveloped portions of the resort. “I’m really stepping in with a clean plate,” he said. “My gut is you can do something really cool here that enhances the amenity package for Point Roberts residents.”