Walstrom Marine converting its State Street facility to yacht club

By Charles O’Neill
Harbor Light Newspaper

A waterfront landmark business in Harbor Springs is about to evolve into a new entity. Walstrom Marine’s State Street marina complex is becoming a private yacht club to be known as The Boathouse.

In an interview last week, Ward Walstrom, Jr. explained the concept and the thinking behind this transition.

The Boathouse will accommodate 63 wet slips (as it does currently), for boats ranging from 25 to 100 feet in length. As it is now, some of the slips will be covered and protected, others will be open with harbor views.

In addition, the club will include the East Building clubhouse with catered dining facilities, undercover parking, Board Room and Boaters Lounge, rest room with showers, laundry, shore power, internet access, and pumpout facilities.

“The idea of the creation of a club is something that we have been considering for several years for this location,” Walstrom said. “It just seemed to be a natural evolution of the use of this property.

“We did not want some mega marina conglomerate to operate here and change the facility or atmosphere. Many of the members want to keep it the way it is with a few improvements,” he said. “With this transformation, the members will become partners in the community, which benefits our town and our economy.”

In fact, Walstrom said, most people will not even notice a difference in the overall setting at the end of State Street.

There will be a new entrance and exit configuration for the parking lot, including the possible installation of a gate to restrict access to members and service vehicles. That parking configuration was reviewed and approved by the city of Harbor Springs Planning Commission and City Council recently.

A new entrance to the lot will be located off Bay Street, across from the New York Restaurant. The sidewalk will be exended south along the east side of the parking lot allowing public access to Walstrom’s retail store, Propellers, which will remain in the same location.

Vehicles will exit the lot at the west end near the city beach.

Beginning in the summer of 2011, Walstrom Marine will relocate its sales to its facilities at the eastern end of Bay Street, 501 Bay Street. Improvements are planned to those buildings, near the Marina Village condominiums and Walstrom’s other basin which was expanded last year.

Some improvements to The Boathouse building have already taken place. Last summer, a new roof was installed over the covered slips next to The Pier Restaurant. This past fall, a new roof with skylights was installed above the main floor including a smooth-paneled interior roof system.

Many of Wastrom Marine’s customers have become members of The Boathouse. Walstrom said they have passed the halfway mark in sales and are nearing 60-percent sold.

“The recently expanded yacht basin at 501 Bay Street has enabled Walstrom Marine the opportunity to provide dockage to all of its current dockage customers for this summer,” Walstrom said of those boaters that had been docked at the State Street facility but who opt out of membership in The Boathouse.

The Boathouse is a deposit membership club, Walstrom explained.

“The deposit membership is a concept that was introduced in the late 1980s and has become a popular type of membership. A deposit membership provides the member a license to use the club facilities for a period of 30 years and beyond. There is no change in ownership, nor are the members required to purchase the club.”

As the docks and upland real estate are not being sold, the State of Michigan bottomlands lease has been transferred to The Boathouse of Harbor Springs, who are the same owners as Walstrom Marine, he explained.

Walstrom acknowledged that it is a difficult economy in which to sell anything, including this new concept.

“There has always been and will always be a demand for docks in Harbor Springs because of its uniqueness,” he said. “The Boathouse offers boaters something even more unique.”

“It is kind of a once-ina- lifetime offering, the opportunity to have a location dowtown Harbor Springs where you can keep your boat,” Walstrom added.

He said the economy has had a definite impact on his business and boating overall.

“You can probably tell. You have seen some empty slips this past summer. You might even be able to get a city marina slip. It never used to be that way.”

Walstrom said they are seeing a different clientele these days.

“It used be that most of our customers came from southeast Michigan, auto industry and car dealers,” he said. “Now we are seeing people from out of state looking to Harbor Springs and the Great Lakes for recreation and retirement. I think that is what the state of Michigan needs to really promote – the recreational opportunities on the Great Lakes.”

Walstrom said they will keep the gas dock where it is for now and that some form of take-out grill food on the city beach side of the facility will remain this summer, as it has been for the past few years.

For more information on The Boathouse, call 231.526.0800 or www.boathousehs.com

This is part of the February 10, 2010 online edition of Harbor Light Newspaper.

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