Marina del Rey : Marina Vacancy Rate 11.1%

A near-record number of boat slips in Marina del Rey were empty at the beginning of this month as a depressed economy and high fees continued to discourage boaters.

The latest survey by the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors found that 570 of the 5,157 boat slips in the marina were vacant at the beginning of July.

The 11.1% vacancy rate was only one-tenth of a percent below the figure for May, the highest level recorded since the county began monthly surveys in 1987.

Faced with large numbers of empty slips during the peak summer boating season, Marina del Rey developers, who operate docks on long-term leases with the county, asked for help Wednesday in promoting the marina to boaters.

Abraham M. Lurie, the marina’s largest leaseholder, blamed the vacancy problem on “the recession--people losing jobs” and banks foreclosing on boats. He joined Robert Leslie, executive vice president of the Marina del Rey Lessees Assn., in urging the county’s Small Craft Harbor Commission to include marina apartments and boat slips in a new campaign to boost tourism at the marina. The commission declined the request.

Commission Chairman Herbert Strickstein said there is a relationship between high fees and the empty slips and suggested that lower rates would be one answer to the vacancy problem. But Leslie insisted that there is “absolutely no correlation” between slip rents and vacancy.

The vacancy rate has climbed sharply in the last year from the 6% level of last July. The most vacancies occurred in slips for boats under 35 feet in length.

Ted Reed, director of the county Department of Beaches and Harbors, warned that the vacancy problem is likely to worsen this fall and winter. “Planes and boats are the first toys to go when times get tough,” he said.

The high vacancy rate will mean lower revenues for the county, which receives about 25% of the revenue generated by the boat slips.