Marina demand is measured in feet of vessel, not in slips. This report establishes the wet and dry storage capacity serving a boating market, how it is distributed across vessel lengths, what it charges, and whether the registered fleet supports more.
Supply is inventoried facility by facility: wet slips by length band, dry stack positions and rack limits, trailer and outside storage, transient capacity, fuel dock, pump-out, travel lift capacity, and the condition of docks and bulkheads. Waiting lists are recorded where operators disclose them, because in constrained markets they are the clearest evidence of unmet demand. New capacity is rarely simple to add — permits for dredging, docks and submerged land tenure govern the pipeline more than capital does, and the report describes that constraint explicitly.
Demand rests on the registered vessel base in the draw area by length and type, its trend, and the share of vessels large enough to require a slip rather than a trailer. Household income, waterfront housing, sport fishing activity, tournaments and cruising patterns fill out the picture. Where a market draws seasonal or transient traffic from a cruising corridor, that demand is analysed separately from the resident fleet.
Rate is reported per foot per month or per year by length band and by storage type, because a facility's revenue mix depends on how many large vessels it can take. Occupancy is reported by length band as well: a marina can be full for thirty-foot slips and empty for fifty-foot ones. Ancillary revenue — fuel, service labour, haul-out, storage of trailers — is analysed separately, as it commonly carries the operation's margin.
The competitive set is the facilities a boat owner would realistically move to, which in a coastal market may be a long stretch of shoreline and in a lake market may be three operators. Ownership structure matters: municipal and club facilities price differently from private operators. Transactions are summarised where reported, including whether the sale conveyed submerged land or a leasehold.
Capacity is tested against the registered fleet rather than population. Risks include leasehold or submerged-land tenure shorter than the loan term, storm exposure and the insurance market's response to it, dredging and permit obligations, environmental conditions on older yards, and demand concentration in a single vessel class.
Marina operators evaluating acquisition or expansion, developers converting or rebuilding waterfront facilities, lenders underwriting a going-concern marina, and municipalities assessing their own facilities. Financed projects normally pair the report with a feasibility study covering the going-concern operation.
A market intelligence report describes the market. It tells you what slip and dry stack capacity exists by vessel length and what the registered fleet will support. A feasibility study goes further: it takes one project, applies the market findings to its capital cost and operating model, and reaches a conclusion on whether it works — which is what SBA and USDA programmes require. An appraisal develops an opinion of value for a specific property under professional valuation standards. Many files need more than one, and the market work is common to all three.
See Market Intelligence for the research method, or market research consulting where the question does not fit a package.
Reports are commissioned for a named market and this asset type. Geography runs from a single county to several states, the fee is fixed and agreed with the reports desk once the market and scope are confirmed, and delivery is 3 to 5 business days for standard geographies. Where the project also falls inside one of the seven purchasable property-type families — office, retail, multifamily, warehouse and industrial, mixed-use, hospital and ASC, and gas station and truck stop — the published packages from $1,950 apply and can be priced in the builder on market reports.
Last reviewed September 2026. Every figure in a delivered report carries its source and date; where a figure could not be verified, the report says so.
Independent, commissioned research for your market. Fixed fee, delivered in 3 to 5 business days.
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Wert-Berater, Inc. is an independent provider of feasibility studies and other related services. The firm does not provide financing or equity investment advice, and does not arrange, broker, or place debt or equity capital of any kind.
All appraisal assignments are performed by Bruce E. Jones, MAI, ASA-GC, BCA, CMEA, a member of the Appraisal Institute since 2006, a staff member of Wert-Berater, Inc. and owner of Special Purpose Realty Valuation.