Tavares starts marina rebuild plans
Seaplane City plans for more durable base
TAVARES — Pilings jutting from Lake Dora like some sort of pop art assemblage are the remnants of Tavares’ pride and joy — the city’s multimillion-dollar seaplane base and marina.
Built as part of Tavares’ strategy to rebrand itself as America’s Seaplane City, the facility catering to seaplanes opened in 2010 and is credited with helping boost the downtown as a Central Florida entertainment spot.
But last September, Hurricane Irma left the seaplane base and marina a mangled mess — the metal walkways and docks tossed and turned by high winds that also left a couple dozen boats piled on top of one other. Surveying the wreckage, City Administrator John Drury vowed the destroyed infrastructure would be replaced stronger than before.
Now, almost a year later, the first step in that effort is underway — the beginnings of a rebuild Drury said should be completed in 2020 at a cost up to $10 million. Fortu-
nately for taxpayers in the Lake County city of 17,000, 98 percent of the cost will be covered by insurance, he said.
Tavares recently executed a $740,000 contract with Jacksonville design, engineering and construction firm Haskell to design a more durable replacement — one that can withstand a Category 5 hurricane, with winds up to 185 mph. That’s more than double the 80-mph winds that tore through Tavares.
“We’re going increase the design criteria to worst-case scenario,” Drury said. “We want to build a facility that can weather all storms.”
He said it took nearly a year to get to this point because government projects of this magnitude — “where you have to cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s” — are inherently time-consuming.
He described a lengthy process that has included working with insurance companies, seeking and vetting proposals from prospective bidders for the design work and getting City Council approval to negotiate with the firm chosen.
As bad as the damage was, the storm didn’t force Tavares to put its moniker, America’s Seaplane City, on the shelf. That’s because about 70 percent of the seaplanes that visit the city are amphibious and can use wheels to reach a refueling station on a paved aircraft apron. But Irma wrecked a refueling station on the waterside docks, so float planes without landing gear — which make up about 30 percent of Tavares’ seaplane traffic — are unable to gas up and may skip a stop in Tavares for the time being, Drury said.
“We hope to recapture that market share when we rebuild the seaplane base,” he said.
Seaplane pilots often drop in on Tavares, about 35 miles northwest of downtown Orlando, to spend the night at a downtown hotel, dine at local restaurants, stroll around Wooton Park and downtown before refueling and flying off to another seaplane-friendly destination.
The waterside docks helped Tavares exceed 20,000 seaplane arrivals since opening, not counting flights by scenic tour operators, Drury said.
“One of the reasons we’re successful is we are one of very, very few facilities in the state of Florida where you can refuel a seaplane in the water,” he said. “We’re the place to go if you have no wheels on your plane.”
The loss of the seaplane base hasn’t stopped people from taking seaplane tours, said Meghan Galloway, one of the owners of Jones Brothers Air & Seaplane Adventures, which operates five seaplanes along the Tavares lakefront and also picks up customers in Mount Dora.
“We’re busier than ever,” she said. “We haven’t had any impacts.”
As for potential damage to the rebuilt seaplane base, Tavares economic development director Bob Tweedie said the city’s insurance policy includes a “betterment” clause. That means more money will be paid to make the new base stronger.
Design and permitting is expected to take eight to nine months, he said. Then, construction could take six months to a year, he said.
Drury said the new and improved base will serve Tavares for years to come.
“We’ll be back,” he said, “and we’ll be back better than we were before.”