Institutional investors are accelerating their push into marina real estate, betting that limited supply, rising demand from affluent boat owners and growing rents will continue to drive returns.

With capital markets' increasingly comfortable lending on marinas and developers layering in luxury residential, retail and megayacht‑ready infrastructure, the sector is entering an active investment phase likely to stretch through 2027 as owners cash out and buyers compete for waterfront land.

“Wall Street has really invested in marinas,” according to marina broker David Kendall, commercial real estate managing director at SVN. “The capital markets have gotten more comfortable with lending on them, they've gotten more comfortable with insuring these assets, and therefore they've become ripe for consolidation.”

Blackstone‑owned Safe Harbor’s $1.5B move to acquire boat retailer and marina operator MarineMax marks one of the largest marina deals to date. The trade underscores how aggressively capital is flowing into marine real estate as investors chase scale and supply-constrained waterfront land.

The deal is both “advantageous and accretive,” according to Kendall.

Safe Harbor will add MarineMax's 120 locations in the U.S. and Caribbean to its existing 150-marina portfolio. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

By their nature, marinas come in a limited supply, placing upward pricing pressure on the roughly 11,000 such properties in the U.S. Rental rates for boat slips vary widely based on the location, usage type, ownership type, and whether the dock is wet or dry.

For a slip in publicly owned marinas in Miami, rents have grown 23% from around $42 per foot per month in 2019 to $52 today, according to city of Miami pricing documents. Those rates are expected to continue climbing. More than half of marinas report occupancy above 95%, according to an annual survey by Marina Dock Age. 

Although boat purchases softened in 2025 amid tariff concerns and an uneasy economy, sales have picked back up in 2026, with just under 6,000 vessels changing hands in July, an increase of 18.2% over the prior year, according to Boats Group.

An expected wave of sellbacks after a Covid-era boom in “pandemic toy” purchases didn’t happen, suggesting the recent wave of new buyers was in it for the long haul, said Jamie Gilman, U.S. business development manager for Elite Dynamics, a software provider for marina management. The Covid-era buying surge also included an increase in the sale of larger boats, translating to a need for larger slips. That increase in big-boat sales has since dropped off, with more approachable watercraft measuring 26 feet or shorter making up 95% of the market.

“We all see the megayachts because it's the glitz and glamour,” Gilman said. “Of course, the backbone of the industry is still going to be the guy who retires at 55 years old, moves to lake town and wants to be able to go on his boat every day.”

Growing trends like fractional ownership and boating clubs are also helping keep more people in the game, and participation is holding steady, Shoremaster found.

The Safe Harbor-MarineMax deal would create a behemoth in the $7B marina industry and set off a merger spree among competitors, Kendall said. Those competitors include Suntex, which is backed by Centerbridge Partners. 

A few smaller-scale marina M&A deals have already occurred. In June, two smaller owners, Port 32 Marinas and Acme Marinas, backed by Koch Real Estate Group, announced a merger. Similar smaller groups, especially those that are backed by venture capital or private equity, will continue partnering off in search of scale, Gilman said.

There are plenty of acquisition targets: 90% of the marinas in the U.S. are still controlled by owners with only a single property to their name, Kendall said.

Many are longtime family firms, which Kendall said may be intrigued by the ability to cash out during the current merger wave. They also lack the capital of deep-pocketed competitors and can’t upgrade facilities to meet evolving consumer expectations. He predicts a “very strong year” of transactions and acquisitions that will carry into 2027. 

Those expectations increasingly include amenities that go far beyond those traditionally offered at marinas, with a wave of new luxury residential and retail developments planned at some marinas, particularly those in South Florida that cater to the ultra-wealthy.

Advanced manufacturing uses are also on the table, as demonstrated by JLL's recent listing of the Mare Island Maritime Campus, a 350-acre former military site in Vallejo, California, that is already home to 2M SF of existing buildings and four dry docks. JLL is marketing the property as an opportunity to develop ship and submarine manufacturing space.

“Marina space is no longer necessarily a place just to park your boat,” Gilman said. “As boat owners have become more wealthy and more affluent, expectations have changed. There's a rise in full-service marina or destination marinas, if you will, with resort amenities, pools, fitness centers, restaurants, hotel and golf courses.”

These projects also help add long-term value and diversify revenue streams from marina investments.

Coastline is a limited resource, and waterfront property, which can be altered for other lucrative uses down the road, remains a valuable commodity, Gilman said.

A number of new residential-plus-marina projects are in the works in areas like Bay Harbor and Miami Beach, including condos and slips for 100-foot-plus vessels. One office-and-dock development is promoting “dock-to-desk yacht access.”

New projects, especially in Florida, a state which boasts more than 800,000 recreational vessels, combine high-end residential with access to new marinas, showcasing the enduring value of waterfront land. Announced in late 2025, a $2B mixed-use redevelopment of Safe Harbor Ryvovich in Palm Beach County, backed by the Huizenga family, will add high-end residential and retail to expanded facilities able to handle megayachts. 

In Fort Lauderdale, Tavistock Development Co. completed a $1B renovation of the Pier Sixty-Six Marina, one of the largest superyacht marinas on the Eastern Seaboard, and plans a mixed-use addition including new commercial tenants and residences.

“This is a product that hasn’t been offered before,” said Chris Gandolfo, senior vice president of Tavistock Development Co. 

Farther up the Caribbean coast of Florida in Naples, the under-construction Halcyon waterfront development, a $350M, 8-acre project with 120 boat slips and residences starting at $3M, is offering concierge services and seeking to attract active retirees or wealthier boating enthusiasts who want hassle-free access to the water. 

“We would sort of say that that really is true luxury,” said Emma Rickwood, director at Henley U.S., Halcyon's developer. “This is not your wingtips and tie place. This is flip-flops, come out, kick back, enjoy-the-barefoot-luxury approach. We’re giving people permission to live that best life.”

At both Pier Sixty-Six and Halcyon, developers say they have factored in the risk of climate change, building residences well above high-tide marks and incorporating additional resilience features above and beyond the building code. And while that may be a threat going forward, in the short term, the industry seems more focused on a rise in demand and asset value. Savills noted that the global marina market, valued at roughly $26B in 2025, is forecast to hit $43B by 2034.

“That value on that waterfront property, short of a major global climate event, is not going to go down,” Gilman said.