Marina holding company BLP Enterprises has acquired a parcel on the Mystic River for $3.5 million.
The lot at 35-37 Water Street includes two buildings of 2,100 and 4,100 square feet, as well as 12 deep-water slips on 210 feet of waterfront.
Essex-based BLP Enterprises currently owns Fort Rachel Marina at 44 Water Street, and CEO Steve Karlson says this was a good opportunity to expand that business.
“We’ve really redone Fort Rachel, but the problem was we don’t have a ton of space there,” he said.
The company has a Yamaha outboard motor showroom at Fort Rachel, and Karlson says he intends to move that sales operation to one of the buildings on the new property.
“We're calling the property Fort Rachel North Yard. It gives us 12 more slips on the Mystic River, and it gives us the ability to expand our Yamaha footprint,” he said.
The Mystic River. Photo | CoStar
The company also owns Chester Point Marina in Chester and Pine Island Marina in Groton. Karlson says the boat business is busy.
“People are not buying boats like they were three, four years ago post-COVID,” he said. “But people are still putting money in their boats and maintaining their boats. In Connecticut, they're not making new marinas for the most part anymore. So there's only so many slips, and inventory is always an issue.”
Karlson says he’s in the process of having the new property surveyed and has hired an architect with the goal of starting work in 2026.
