2017 May June Marina World

COVER STORY
Building big docks
in a small town
Provincetown Marina at the tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts is being
transformed into a megayacht destination with one of the largest breakwater
systems on the East Coast. It’s the third marina in the area to receive a major
overhaul, all at the hands of one industrious couple. Sarah Devlin reports
Chuck and Ann Lagasse are not
new to property development nor
are they naïve when it comes to
marina management. As former
major landowners in Newburyport,
Massachusetts, they are hands-on
and intuitive about how they invest and
improve properties.
“We started by developing marinas
and land for upland auxiliary uses,”
Chuck says about Newburyport,
where they developed and managed
marinas and properties along the
mouth of the Merrimack River 150 miles
(241km) or approximately 60nm north
of Provincetown. “When we started,
we partnered with marinas that had
something like 36 slips. In over 30
years, we built over
500 slips, in our own
facilities and with
partners.”
“We’re about current
uses and mixed use.
[In Newburyport,] we
had a great downtown
with historic buildings,”
Gigantic
SF Type 600 breakwater
units being delivered to
the Provincetown site.
Ann states. As part of that waterfront
development, she and Chuck added
restaurants and retail locations, totalling
45 properties overall.
“When we got involved, there were
30 different owners and we worked to
consolidate them. It was a big portfolio.
It was our life.”
She stops for a moment. “I think of us
as redevelopers, not developers.”
The road to Provincetown
The timeline for the Lagasses and
Provincetown Marina started in 2007.
Chuck and Ann approached the Cabral
family, the owners of Provincetown
Marina (then called Fisherman’s
Wharf), to discuss purchasing the
Mason Sears, SF Marina Systems USA
Provincetown Marina after refurbishment in 2016. The new
elbow-shaped breakwater will run out from the left of
the building towards the sailboat moorings.
old commercial pier and marina with
another financial partner. “We thought
it needed some capital,” Chuck says
diplomatically. The deal fell through for
various reasons, not the least of which
the recession that took hold of the
market in 2008.
That didn’t diminish their interest in
the property, however. “Over the years
I’ve followed it and we stayed in touch
with the owners,” he states. “I always
thought [Provincetown] was one of the
premier boating destinations on the
East Coast.”
He’s referring to the protected
harbour’s location, its deep basin,
and the draw of area beaches and
the historic town centre. Already
a destination for ferry traffic out of
Boston, Provincetown is 50 miles
(80km) to the east, protected from the
Atlantic by a spit of land. If Cape Cod
were a human arm, curled into itself,
Provincetown Harbor would be the
inside of the arm’s fist. It’s a straight
shot from Cape Cod Canal, which
Anders Lindberg, SF Marina
12
www.marinaworld.com - May/June 2017