Harbor Vacancies Hit Record High

Boat slip vacancies reached 11.4% in Marina del Rey at the beginning of February as a depressed economy pushed the vacancy rate to the highest level recorded since monthly surveys began six years ago.

Los Angeles County officials told the county Small Craft Harbor Commission on Wednesday that their latest survey found 586 out of 5,157 slips in the harbor vacant this month, virtually identical to January’s number.

The stubbornly high number of empty slips is bad news for the county, which owns the entire marina and leases it to developers on a long-term basis. The county’s rental income from the docks is a percentage of receipts collected by the developers. As their revenue drops, so does the county’s rent.

The depth of the recession’s impact on the marina is evident in figures that show the vacancy rate has tripled during the past three years; it was 3.8% in February, 1990. The greatest vacancies are for smaller slips, designed for boats less than 35 feet long.

County officials have blamed the problem on economic difficulties that force many boaters to pull their boats out of the water rather than pay monthly slip rates that average $10.67 per foot. With demand weak and competition intense, county figures show overall rental rates for boat slips have dropped slowly during the past year.