New owners plan host of improvements at Bridge Harbour Marina

A Black River marina off a busy corridor in Port Huron Township is slated to get a makeover under new owners, who are also redeveloping the former township RV park across the street.

Steve Ureel, a local native and developer with Parkbridge Investment Group, said they closed on purchasing Bridge Harbour Marina on Dec. 13 and were looking to install a wealth of improvements to the site, 2200 Water St., ahead of the 2024 boating season.

In an interview on Wednesday with partners Robert Pryber and Dan VanDoorne, manning the LLC behind the marina, Ureel said he’d been quietly negotiating with Bridge Harbour’s previous out-of-state owner since the summer, calling it the “next viable option” to explore investing in around that area.

Now, they said they’re excited about revamping the marina in a deal that means the reinstallation of dozens of docks removed under the last owner — there’s over 260 slips there — and giving site amenities a major facelift.

“There’s going to be some real basic things that need to be done to it that’ll improve the aesthetics of it,” VanDoorne said. “So, repainting the whole exterior, painting some of the bathrooms, replacing outdated exterior furniture with more modern up-to-date picnic tables and things like that so people can enjoy themselves there.

“We have talked (how) we’re going to get the tennis court resurfaced and repainted and also have it set up for pickleball, as well, (since) that’s the hot new fad. And we’ve also talked about adding some sort of propane or natural gas fire table that people can gather around and maybe a new swing set as well for the kids.”

VanDoorne, Parkridge's vice president of acquisitions, said they’re retaining the primary phone number and season start this spring for the marina, while also giving its website a makeover with the hopes of making it easier for guests to pay online to “streamline their enjoyment on it.”

He said the aesthetic improvements would be implemented over time.

“But no matter what, every person that goes there is going to have a wow factor and definitely see the improvements that we made and see that we’re honest in what we’re trying to do,” VanDoorne said. They hoped it’d be a place that they want to go to every day to visit with their friends kind of like a social club.

Ureel added that they’re anticipating emphasizing security with new WiFi, gating, and camera systems to help keep Bridge Harbour a family-oriented social space.

Bridge Harbour Manager Lucy Wisson, who’s been there three years, said she was excited about the change in ownership and all the improvements that could come with it.

She said with the campground across the street, it’d make them part of a “nice attraction” for visitors and able to accommodate more boaters than in the past.

“It’s going to be really nice. Right now, there’s not very many places for boaters to go. And after COVID, the vibe in there has really been picking up,” Wisson said. “People are getting their boats. There are a lot of boaters now — more than I’ve seen before. I have a long waiting list for people that want to be there, and I had no place for them.”

What about the RV campground across Water Street?

Ureel and company closed on the RV campground across Water Street and just south of the interstate last owned by the township in 2022. Now being rebranded and redeveloped as Dancing Fire, the park is still on track to reopen this season.

On Wednesday, Ureel said infrastructure for 90 new full-service RV sites were being installed with some of their originally proposed glamping safari tents and deluxe cabins on site.

“Things are happening there, and it’s very much on schedule. … We’re hoping to reopen on April 15,” he said of the regular RV season. He expected cabins and tents to open as part of the 2024 soft opening June 14.

In addition to the RV park and marina redevelopments, Ureel also has an option on nearby township property utilized by the local Lion’s Club and had been involved in exploring development on the Mallard Creek property, where he said “the conditions of the property just didn’t warrant expansion.”

Much of the interest ties to his familiarity and nostalgia for the area.

“I’ve always had a fondness for this whole Water Street, I-94 corridor and was always curious why there wasn’t much development going on there, and I grew up on Henry Street just off of Water Street,” Ureel said. “This used to be my backyard playground for my friends and I growing up.”

For more information on Parkridge’s campground project, visit www.dancingfireresort.com.

To make a reservation at Bridge Harbour, contact the marina operations at (810) 982-2492.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: New owners plan host of improvements at Bridge Harbour Marina