Marine Connection to open new facility in Fort Lauderdale
FORT LAUDERDALE — Longtime South Florida boat dealer Marine Connection will soon drop anchor in Fort Lauderdale with a new 27,000-square-foot dealership site along the Marina Mile corridor.
The facility at 17 W. State Road 84 will have indoor/outdoor space for up to 40 new and preowned boats, sales offices, a fuel station, parts area and multiple bays for servicing vessels, coowner John Kutuk said Thursday.
Located directly across from a West Marine superstore, Marine Connection is scheduled to open in October after the Fort Lauderdale site is converted from an auto retail business, Kutuk said. It’ll join the company’s other locations in West Palm Beach, Miami and Vero Beach.
Marine Connection has been selling and exporting boats since 1987. It specializes in brands such as Cobia, Sportsman, Pathfinder and Hurricane, with boats typically ranging in length from 17 feet to 35 feet.
Kutuk said he and his business partner Danny Goldenberg purchased the original West Palm Beach dealership about six years ago and later expanded operations to Miami and Vero Beach.
Establishing a footprint in Fort Lauderdale was “a no-brainer,” Kutuk said.
Among the city’s key draws were its commercial reputation as the yachting capital of the world and home of the largest boat show globally — the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.
The new dealership’s midpoint location between Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties also provides an opportunity to better serve the company’s Broward customers and those from northern Miami-Dade, Kutuk said.
Fort Lauderdale’s growing international status and appeal to the affluent, as evidenced by the high-end auto dealerships now emerging along the U.S. 1 corridor between the airport and seaport, were also factors fueling the decision to open in Fort Lauderdale.
“We looked at our [sales] numbers and saw great potential for a location here, and we wanted to be where the customers are,” Kutuk said.
Recent data from a marine industry research firm showed saltwater fishing boat registrations were up 5.42 percent in Broward in June from the same month last year — an encouraging sign, he said. “It’s a calculated risk on our end, but we’re optimistic.”
The Fort Lauderdale dealership is expected to boost Marine Connection’s annual revenues by about $10 million in its first year of operations, Kutuk said.
Last year, Marine Connection generated sales revenue of about $35 million, and this year expects results to be at least on par with that, he said. It had revenues of 30.3 million in 2015.
The Fort Lauderdale dealership is expected to open in time for the 58th edition of the Fort Lauderdale boat show, which runs Nov. 1-5 across seven city locations.
“We’ll have a bigger presence at the Fort Lauderdale boat show this year,” said Kutuk. “We’ve doubled the space and will have at least 25 boats on display.”
In 2016, Marine Connection was ranked No. 16 among the top 100 North American dealerships in North America by trade publication Boating Industry magazine.