Yacht company buys New River Marina in Fort Lauderdale: $9M

Set sail for Fort Lauderdale: the founder of a yacht management company just paid $9.4 million for a deep-water marina on the New River.

Yacht Management South Florida, headed by Joshua Kerrigan, purchased its new headquarters at 3001 West State Road 84 through a deed filed Thursday in Broward County. The company financed its purchased with a $5 million loan for Regent Bank.

The New River Marina, located on Fort Lauderdale’s eponymous Marina Mile, had been owned for the last seven years by Alex Nichols.

Nichols came into possession of the harbor when its former owners, to whom he and other creditors loaned money, went belly-up and stopped paying their balance, according to Trade Only Today.

The property was first supposed to be sold at auction in 2008, the publication reported, but the proceedings turned into a quagmire. One bidder apparently thought he was trying to purchase one boat, and not the marina as a whole.

The Allied Richard Bertram Marine Group eventually won the bid, but because of an objection to the messy proceedings, a judge reportedly nullified the sale only days later.

No other buyers came forward, and instead of Nichols recouping the loan money, the court declared him the marina’s owner.

A Loopnet listing for the property, which spans 4.67 acres, said it has 25 boat slips and room to house 65 boats on land.

A fire struck the marina in January of this year, according to the Sun Sentinel, and two $1 million boats named “Lady Lex” and “It’s About Time” sank as a result. They were raised out of the water soon after, but reports said it’s unclear what caused the fire.