The ICOMIA Marinas Group publish a policy paper on marina concessions/lease renewals which is now available from the ICOMIA Library.
This policy paper should be read in conjunction with the IMG Recommendation on Marina Lease Tenders (June, 2018).
Marinas provide essential access by the public to and into the water and provide essential in-water and upland boat storage and associated infrastructure and amenities. They create employment, economic activity and support tourism in the communities surrounding their location and contribute to the aesthetic and social fabric of their communities. Marinas are most often developed and operated with private investment and require professional management of the complex interface between access by the public, operational health and safety, environmental control, industrial activities, tourism and community activities. Marinas are long term investments, capital intensive and with an extended payback period, essential to their long-term viability.
To ensure the continued delivery of high-quality public benefits an investment framework is needed that provides investment certainty through both security of tenure of marina concessions/leases and affordable seabed and land rents within the range of sustainable occupancy cost. Continued investment by the concession holder/lessee over the lease period which results in maintaining modernisation, upgrading, attractiveness and ongoing safe operations, would be more secure if the initial lease terms are of a minimum of 40 years with the ability to extend the lease based on a formula in the lease tied to capital expenditure and improvements.
Criteria should be set forth within standard concessions/leases for the assessment of the performance of the lessee during the existing lease as well as renewal term in the form of benchmarks for capital investments to ensure the objective of ongoing improvement of infrastructure, operations and public desires are delivered.
This policy paper reviews the current situation with regards to marina concessions/leases and recommends ways to increase certainty of investments in marinas and allow the delivery of ongoing improvements in the community outcome from the infrastructure.
3 April 2019