County marina marketed as more than just a place for boats to potential buyers
Good morning! It’s Monday, July 14. Today we’ll provide you more details about how a commercial broker plans to sell the Jamestown Landing marina to recoup the county’s $10 million investment.
Sell the sizzle, not the steak, is a common marketing refrain.
The commercial broker James City County hired to sell the Jamestown Landing marina says the facility’s location in the heart of the Historic Triangle makes it a more valuable property than just another place to store and gas up boats.
“My goal was to market Jamestown Landing as an entertainment venue,” William Hampton Carver III told us. “It’s a waterfront entertainment venue with a marina.”
“The Landing is the starting point for biking and walking along the Capital Trail, a day of boating on the James, kayaking along Powhatan Creek…and for enjoying food, beverages and entertainment at Billsburg Brewery,” he added. “Jamestown Landing's wet slip capacity can be doubled, there is room for development of dry slips storage and a site exists for development of a new waterfront restaurant.”
The county hired Carver’s brokerage company, CarverCo LLC, to seek potential buyers for the 37-acre marina. Carver said he has been a commercial real estate broker and consultant for more than 40 years.
There is no set asking price for the facility, Carver said. ”We’re taking it out to market to bring in the highest and best offers.”
James City County has spent more than $10 million on the facility. County taxpayers spent $5.5 million to buy the marina in 2006, and have since invested more than $4.7 million in infrastructure improvements.
That included removing outdated covered slips, building fueling and pump out stations, new parking facilities and the Billsburg Brewery complex, which is leased at $70,000 a year. The lease will not be affected by a sale, Carver said.
Visitors to the facility can get on site boat repairs, rent kayaks and bikes and take guided boat tours.
Assistant County Administrator Jason Purse said the county hopes to start hearing from potential investors in the next six to 10 months.
No incentives for new Williamsburg slide park
The city of Williamsburg will not be providing financial incentives for the new slide park it approved at the location of the former Yankee Candle store at 2200 Richmond Rd, a city spokesperson told us.
Williamsburg originally approved up to $600,000 in tax rebates if the Richmond-based entertainment company Uptown Alley created an indoor entertainment facility that included a bowling alley, arcade and restaurant.
But the cost of renovating the 65,000 square-foot building proved too high.
The company has come back with a scaled down plan as a franchisee of Slick City, whose concept includes water-less air slides, arcades and climbing courses.
City council approved a special use permit for the facility at its regular meeting last week.
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Guest Opinion
By Steven Woolley
Amid the horrors in Gaza, East Africa, and the floods in Texas, it is reasonable to wonder why God allows such things to happen. It’s a question asked in every age and few answers have ever been satisfactory.
Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote the bestseller When Bad Things Happen to Good People in 1981 after the death of his son. People often refer to it as Why bad things happen to good people, missing the point. Bad things do happen—to good, bad, and indifferent people alike. "Why?" is the ancient question always asked.
Read the full commentary in our Opinion Section.
He Said It:
Publisher’s Note: This is the first of occasional excerpts from what local officials are saying at public meetings or in writing, to give you a better flavor of their ideas. This is a redacted transcript of comments by James City County Supervisor Michael J. Hipple at last Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting, after public speakers criticized the county’s $250 million proposed government center/library annex.
“The comments, not only tonight but lately, have had an ounce of truth and a pound of fake news….when citizens get up here and know the truth and slant it for whatever reasons they want it’s just pure wrong. I mean it is just pure wrong. “And I’m getting a little tired of the nonsense of bringing this stuff back and forth and trying to stir the citizens up. Any citizen who wants to know anything, please call the county. Please talk to Brad (Rinehimer, assistant county administrator) . Please ask the questions. We want to hear the questions. If you’re concerned about something we want to know that. “But to sit there in a little group and huddle together and think they’re gonna stop something because they think they know more, when they’ve just gotten into the game and they have all the information, and they can learn anything they wanna learn, but wanna slant it to their fake news – might as well use some of that – and then they write in there and talk about The Williamsburg Watch, well it’s just like any other paper out there… they wanna go in there and stir up the community. That’s what papers are about. Papers are about to make it seem like nothing’s going right and nothing’s working the way it should… “And I’ll go back to the old school. If you don’t like it, and it’s right and we’re doing what we need to and you don’t like it, the car that brought you to James City County can definitely take you right back out.”
