Huron, Ohio, Marina Gets New Owner
Plans are underway to upgrade the facility, including new docks and expanded services.
A new owner has taken over at Harbor Point Marina in Huron, Ohio — and plans to make it more than just a place to dock a boat.
“I’m really looking forward to what’s coming in this place,” says Wade Gottfried. “I really hope it will be a cool place for people to enjoy being on the water. I enjoy being around other boaters, and I’d like people to come out and hang out here.”
Gottfried, 41, is a native of Sandusky, Ohio, and grew up in a farming family. They’re diversifying, and considered buying lakefront marinas in the past, but the opportunity to buy Harbor Point — which will be renamed Old Mill Harbor, for a former flour mill in the area — was too good to pass up.
The 3.84-acre marina, with 65 boat slips, was put up for sale previously for more than $2.3 million. With no buyers, it was taken off the market, and then put up for auction in September with an minimum bid of $1.15 million and no reserve. The property sold for $1,347,500, according to Erie County property records, and Gottfried officially took ownership six weeks later.
The marina was touted as a turn-key business, and Gottfried notes that there is already cash flow to allow him to do some work at the marina.
“We’re going to be improving everything on the site itself,” he says. “These obviously won’t happen overnight. I’d also like to expand services.” Long-term, Gottfried says he’d like to put in new docks and work on the seawall.
Gottfried calls himself “a boater at heart,” with a 52-foot boat he’d docked previously at Gem Beach on Catawba Island, and then at Bay Point on the Marblehead peninsula. He’ll start docking his boat in Huron, which he says is on the rise.
“I love the marina life,” he says. “I feel like Huron is on the upswing.
“I’m passionate about this, and I’m enjoying the workload.”
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