Plattsburgh Boat Basin sold
May 12—PLATTSBURGH — After being on the market for five years, the Plattsburgh Boat Basin was sold Tuesday.
Local realtor Neil Fesette, of Fesette Reality in Plattsburgh, confirmed to the Press-Republican that Ryan Magaziner of Atlantic Recreation Group purchased the property at 5 Dock St, which includes the marina and Naked Turtle restaurant building.
'SEAMLESS INTERACTION'
Though previous Plattsburgh Boat Basin owner Matt Spiegel will continue to operate the Naked Turtle as normal, Magaziner said.
"We'll still have that sort of seamless interaction between the marina and the restaurant," he said.
Both Magaziner and Fesette declined to answer how much the property was officially sold for.
"I'd rather keep that confidential between the two parties," Magaziner said.
WHY PLATTSBURGH?
Magaziner is from Texas and with the purchase of the Plattsburgh Boat Basin, now owns two marinas as well as three RV parks in the Northeast.
Magaziner said his interest in the property began about a year ago but he's had his eye on Plattsburgh for a while now.
"Really over the last five, six, seven years, I've really just started hearing more and more about Plattsburgh and Lake Champlain and just learning about the area and so that just kind of got me excited," he said.
"A lot of times people ask me, 'why didn't you buy a marina in your backyard?' and that's a good question ... but for me, it just seemed intriguing being in Plattsburgh in an area that boating is just so important."
MANAGEMENT DETAILS
While Magaziner owns the property, Oasis Marinas Management, which is based out of Maryland, will be managing it.
"They'll be the ones day to day making sure that everything's going accordingly," he said.
"Oasis works on some of my other assets as well, so it's not like this is my first time working with them. We have a very good rapport and so that's who I'm trusting to take what the ... previous owners had started the last 30 years, really and continue to just improve the boating experience for the people who are trusting us and keeping their boats with us."
So far, he said, Oasis has done basic cleanup, maintenance and planted some flowers on the property.
Magaziner said in the coming weeks, he'll sit down with Oasis and they'll put together another solid business plan for what they want to accomplish at the marina.
"We will end up looking at everything to see, you know, what is truly needed here and what is important to the boaters."
Fesette said he was happy to see it finally sold after five years.
"I think the big reason why there was such an elongated market time was COVID," Fesette said.
"That was very difficult because all of the Canadians couldn't come down and it was virtually impossible for any buyer to really feel good about what was going to happen after COVID. So it was just too much risk for the property and business to be sold during that time frame."
CITY PROPOSAL
Though Fesette acknowledged that there wasn't a lack of interest in the property the past five years. He pointed to the City of Plattsburgh's brief contemplation about purchasing it in 2021 as an example.
"(Mayor) Chris Rosenquest had the idea, because there are a lot of municipal marinas across this country, and there's lots of municipalities that own marinas and they own them for a source of income, so I think he had, honestly, a very good idea there. His council just didn't have the political will to make it happen," Fesette said.
"Ironically ... Chris's vision was not to have the city run it, he was going to have a professional marina management company run it and ironically, Ryan utilizes that same management company."
Fesette said he now sees good things on the horizon for Plattsburgh Boat Basin's boaters.
"I think the boaters ... if they are patient with him, they're patient with Oasis — and I'm a boater — my feeling is it will be a really, really good thing after some time passes and they implement some of the changes they are going to make."
Email: cnewton@pressrepublican.com
Twitter: CarlySNewton
