A private equity company is set to buy Front Street Shipyard, the prominent waterfront boat builder and marina in downtown Belfast that services vessels from small recreational boats to superyachts.
The shipyard, which has played a pivotal role in transforming Belfast’s waterfront since it opened in 2011, entered a purchase and sale agreement earlier this year with Safe Harbor Marinas, the largest marina and superyacht servicing business in the U.S. The agreement was made shortly after Safe Harbor Marinas was acquired by a division of the private equity giant Blackstone in a $5.65 billion deal.
The sale is set to close by the end of the year, according to an October application that Safe Harbor submitted to the city’s Planning Board. Attempts in recent months to confirm the planned sale have been unsuccessful, but the documents verify it and reveal new details.
Information about the purchase price for the shipyard was unavailable Monday.
Safe Harbor Marinas did not return a request for comment Monday. Front Street Shipyard declined to comment.
Bub Fournier, the city’s director of code and planning, confirmed the current sale timeline.
“I don’t expect any changes in the near term, that’s for sure,” he said Monday about the shipyard’s operations.
Safe Harbor’s upcoming purchase is another example of private equity or other investment companies buying small businesses across Maine and the country. In and around Belfast, such firms have recently made purchases in other industries including heating fuel delivery, mobile home parks and medical billing company Athenahealth, often buying out the local owners who started them.
Safe Harbor owns 138 other marinas in the U.S and Puerto Rico and a handful more abroad, including locations in Rockland, Harpswell and Kittery. It was previously owned by real estate investment firm Sun Communities.
It plans to keep the site as a working marina and boatyard while making $5 million in unspecified investments within the next three years, the company said in an October letter to the Planning Board that accompanied an application to change ownership for an existing special zoning agreement there.
Front Street Shipyard opened in 2011, bought the neighboring Belfast Boatyard in late 2012 and continued to expand and add jobs in the following years.
It’s been central to the redevelopment of downtown Belfast for the last decade and a half, maintaining a public walkway along the water, attracting development grant funds and ensuring that the area has remained a working waterfront.
“Front Street Shipyard is emblematic of the resurgence of Belfast,” Thomas Kittredge, the city’s economic development director, said in 2014 when the company received a $10 million U.S. Department of Agriculture loan to help it continue expanding. “It’s very visible. It’s brought new vitality to the waterfront.”
Front Street for years has been led by one of its founders and partners, JB Turner. Local tax records show that it owns at least four properties in the city, including four along Front Street, with a total assessed value of about $11.7 million.