Company Overview
Media Exposure
Developer plans luxury marina-club for Tequesta
By LORI BECKER
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 17, 2008
TEQUESTA — A decade after he bought Seagate Marina out of foreclosure, Robert Miller is finally redeveloping the waterfront property he once eyed for condominiums.
The West Palm Beach developer is transforming Seagate into a luxury marina and private club where members own rather than lease their slips. With amenities such as gourmet dining, poolside cocktails and concierge service, the amped-up marina will cater to high-end boaters who want more than just a place to store their vessels.
"We're turning it into a country club. It'll be more exclusive," said Miller, 60, president of a real estate development and management firm with offices on Clematis Street.
Renamed the Jupiter Pointe Club and Marina, the $150 million project is to include indoor dry-stack storage for 250 to 300 boats from 32 feet to 45 feet in length. It also will have a 6,000-square-foot clubhouse with a restaurant, swimming pool and tiki bar.
With dockhands readying vessels, the club is targeting customers who want no-hassle boating — and who can afford the price of admission.
Slips are priced between $150,000 and $250,000, or about $5,000 a foot. Boaters also will pay a $275 monthly membership fee.
"Service, by far, will be the biggest attribute," said Anna Bennett, Jupiter Pointe's new marina manager. "It's not a garage. We want it to be a place where they'll enjoy coming to visit."
Pegged "rackominiums," the dry-stack boat slips, sold like condominiums, have gotten mixed reviews. Some on Florida's west coast have been successful, while newer projects in southeast Florida have had sluggish sales.
Jupiter Pointe is one of the first to have them in this area. In Stuart, the Fort Myers-based Yacht Clubs of the Americas is planning a similar club and marina with five-star services. But industry watchers say slip sales have been slow at the site on the St. Lucie River.
A few rackominium projects in Fort Lauderdale also haven't seen the brisk sales hoped for, said Cindy Belden, a real estate agent with DoDocks.com, a Stuart-based real estate site for docks, marinas and other waterfront property.
"It's a flat market," she said. "They're not interested in buying rack storage ... because they don't know how long they're going to have that boat and don't want to have to sell the dry rack as well."
Demand is far greater for wet slips, Belden said. While some marinas have sold wet slips for years, the sale of dry stacks is a newer approach to the growing number of boaters and dwindling supply of storage space.
"It's such a new concept that it hasn't proven itself yet. Most of them aren't even finished being built," she said.
Miller touts Jupiter Pointe's location: less than a mile north of the Jupiter Inlet, across the Intracoastal Waterway from Blowing Rocks Preserve.
Construction is to start in March on the boat storage building, with the marina and club scheduled to open in early 2009, said Myron Miller, 31, Main Street's vice president and the elder Miller's son.
That's the first phase. If sales go well, the Millers plan to build a second storage building for another 300 boats on the south side of the property, where the old racks are now. If the interest isn't there, they may look again at condominiums.
"We're not highly leveraged, so we're flexible," said Robert Miller, who lives in Palm Beach with his wife, Linnette.
Miller bought the 10-acre site in 1996 for $3.5 million, after the bank foreclosed on the former Maxon Marina, Martin County records show. During the condo craze, he had plans to go residential but knew the county would fight the loss of slips.
So, he came back with the rackominium plan, opting for the higher return of slip sales rather than leases. Martin County approved the project in September.
The Jupiter Pointe sales team first pitched the project to 250 boaters already keeping their vessels at Seagate, paying rents from $15 to $19 a foot per month. About 10 have made reservations so far, Myron Miller said.
Many have vessels under 30 feet long, so the new storage barn isn't an affordable option for them.
"It's the tenants with the small boats that aren't excited," Bennett said. "But those with larger boats see the advantage."