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Rebuilding & Reimagining
Marina Reopenings ON TAP FOR BAY POINT AND PORT ST. JOE
Recovery from Hurricane Michael has been a steady process
Written By KARI C. BARLOW
AFTER THE DEVASTATION OF
Hurricane Michael, Bay Point Marina is on its way back to normality. B oating, fishing and watersports are as much a part of life along the Gulf Coast as college football and family get-togethers. The region’s bays, rivers, lakes and the turquoise water of the Gulf of Mexico are a beacon to all types of boaters, from the novice weekend fisherman to the most skilled captains. According to Daniel Fussell, marina director with St. Joe Hospitality, “People do not move to the coast to sit on their couches. People want beaches and boats. And to have boats, the area needs marinas.” It is with that mindset that St. Joe Hospitality began planning for potential future marinas in Northwest Florida while rebuilding its two marinas that were destroyed by Hurricane Michael in 2018.
Nearly three years after the Category 5 storm made landfall, the company’s marinas in Port St. Joe and the Bay Point community in Panama City Beach are making significant progress towards planned reopenings. Each marina had its own distinct personality that fit the character of the surrounding community. With their ongoing rebuilds, St. Joe Hospitality intends to recapture some of that magic, all while rebuilding the marinas’ offerings and facilities to attract boaters both local and from afar.
Bay Point Marina — created in the late 1960s and early ’70s, developed over decades, and purchased by St. Joe in 2008 — was a go-to marina for recreational boaters in and around Bay County.
“Bay Point Marina was a place where boats of all sizes could come in and be treated with class — from boats of 20 feet to those at 125 feet,” Fussell recalled. “Each boater was treated like they were the next mega yacht making its way through the channel.”
—Daniel Fussell, Marina Director
It was the kind of place that specialized in making folks feel like they were part of a big, fun-loving family who enjoyed fishing, cruising, and watching football on the back deck of their boats with friends.
“We always said, ‘whether you stay a day, a week, a month or a lifetime, Bay Point Marina is a place you’ll call home.’”
“Boats from all over the world would stop in because the captains and owners knew of Bay Point Marina’s reputation as a tucked-away safe harbor, that the staff was knowledgeable, and that our relationship with the marine industry was like no other,” Fussell said. “When it came to customer service, Bay Point Marina aimed to set a new standard.”
The rebuild that is currently taking place at the marina includes plans for 127 wet slips for boats of various sizes. Other planned features include a ship’s store and the potential to offer pontoon boat rentals, fishing charters and dolphin tours.
Much like the town whose name it bears, Port St. Joe Marina elicits fond memories among those who visited the marina since it was built in the late 1990s.
“Port St. Joe Marina enjoyed a reputation as a great place in Florida to get a boat and go scalloping each year,” Fussell said. “It was just a small marina with a big heart and over the years was tagged by some cruising guides as Florida’s friendliest marina.”
While it primarily served the boating community from the South Georgia, Tallahassee and surrounding areas, the marina also attracted its share of non-boating tourists.
“Once scallop season started, the marina was full of vacationers renting boats, fishing charters and taking snorkel trips, just trying to get their fill of scallop, pompano, trout or redfish,” Fussell said.
This marina rebuild has includes a new dry storage barn that is currently under construction with plans to hold up to 252 boats of up to 45 feet long. Much like Bay Point Marina, plans for the wet slips at Port St. Joe will make it possible for the marina to welcome vessels up to 125 feet in length.
“Port St. Joe is a small fishing town, and everyone either knows how to fish, wants to fish or just wants to be on the water,” Fussell said. “A fishing town is not really a fishing town without its marina.”
—Daniel Fussell, Marina Director
In addition to these marinas, St. Joe Hospitality is considering new marina locations in the future to service the boating community. The company previously announced plans to construct a public marina along the Intracoastal Waterway near West Bay and the Latitude Margaritaville Watersound community in Bay County. Planning for that marina is still ongoing, but its intended location provides convenient access to West Bay, Choctawhatchee Bay and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico.
Bay Point Marina could potentially see a second phase of construction that would increase the quantity and size of its wet slips.
As long as boating continues to be a way of life for many along the Gulf Coast, local marinas will be a vital part of that lifestyle. With its marinas that are under construction and others that may become a reality in the future, St. Joe Hospitality hopes to create destinations that will welcome boaters with a level of service that will keep them coming back year after year.
