West Palm Beach marina plans expansion
Project calls for docks downtown
West Palm Beach soon could get more docks for super-yachts right on the downtown waterfront
Palm Harbor Marina plans an expansion worth “millions” that developers hope would be ready late this year. The project would add about 1,000 feet of dockage that could hold six yachts 160 feet or longer.
The addition could boost mega-yacht displays at the Palm Beach International Boat Show, which already uses some of the marina’s docks for bigger vessels. The boat show is one of the world’s five largest.
“Yachts are getting bigger and bigger. There is demand for docks for yachts 120 feet-plus,” said Cheryl A. Chase, executive vice president and principal of Leisure Resorts, the Chase family company developing the project.
The plan highlights the transformation at the marina since Leisure Resorts, under new terms of a long-term lease, revamped what had been a smaller, decades-old facility with wooden docks.
The company invested about $20 million to create the modern 200-slip mega-yacht marina that debuted about five years ago. The facility features floating concrete docks that rise and fall with the tides to make docking easier. It has extra-wide dock platforms that let two golf carts pass comfortably.
Improvements also included an updated yacht club and a gourmet store, among other upgrades — all financed by the Chase family, which has varied real estate holdings in Florida and beyond.
The lease now provides the city of West Palm