Healthy rivalry in tit-for-tat growth

TWO separate marinas and shipyards on the Gold Coast, two separate $100 million expansion plans that will see each double in size, all announced within 24 hours of each other.

The city’s biggest – Gold Coast City Marina – got in first, unveiling their development plans yesterday morning.

Up the road, Boat Works is this morning officially launching its expansion plans, of similar magnitude but with an added retail and restaurant hub.

Gold Coast City Marina CEO Trenton Gay said the two were working independently and the timing was coincidental.

Mr Gay said he understood the Boat Works had only recently bought extra land, whereas his family had invested in the GC City Marina’s earmarked area of expansion 10 years ago.

“I was aware Boat Works had bought another piece of land and were doing something,” he said. “But we have been planning our expansion for years. It was dependent on dredging and now we have had the go-ahead on that from the Gold Coast Waterways Authority.

“I have been waiting to release this since the start of the year. The last piece of the puzzle was confirmation of the dredging and we got that last week.

“We also had to wait for critical mass in the local market and visitor market. This will bring boat building back to Queensland.”

Asked if he felt there was enough demand for two separate $100 million marina expansions, Mr Gay said: “Not initially there is not. But we have been working on this for a long time and ours will be very different to theirs.”

Asked if a war was brewing between the two shipyards, Mr Gay said: “Not from my perspective but I can’t answer for them.”

He added that City Marina had capacity to lift and maintain much bigger vessels and after Stage 2 would have even more capacity with its 1000-tonne lift.