Completion of Marina Project Placed on Hold : Ventura Harbor: The renovation of company’s six docks winds up this week. But with a 15% slip vacancy rate, work on the remaining three will now have to wait.

When one of the companies that rents boat slips at Ventura Harbor decided to rebuild its docks two years ago, the future seemed promising.

At the time, Ventura Isle Marina was renting all of its 700 slips, even though some of them were more than 20 years old and in dire need of repair.

To protect its investment and attract new renters, Ventura Isle Marina decided to spend more than $6 million to refurbish its docks.

But midway through the project, the recession hit. People began selling their boats and leaving the marina. Others took their boats and stored them on trailers at home to save rental costs.

“It was conceived pre-recession,” said Randy Short, vice president at Almar Ltd., which owns Ventura Isle Marina. “Then the bottom fell out of the market.”

This week, two-thirds of the project will be completed. And the rest of the project will be put on temporary hold. The company now owns some spanking new docks and has a 15% slip vacancy.

Short said officials do not regret giving the docks a face lift, “because it would have had to be done later anyway--they were looking shabby.” But he concedes that the timing was questionable.

At one point, company officials debated whether to scrap the project or delay it, but decided to postpone work on the final phase instead, Short said.

Six docks have been rebuilt already, and officials will wait for the market to get better before finishing the last three, Short said. He expects the project to be completed within three years and the market to be up by then.

The renovation has involved tearing out old concrete docks that contained cracks and faded wood and replacing them, Short said. It took five years to plan the project and company officials went through more than 30 designs before they were satisfied, he said.

Ventura Isle Marina leases land and water from the Ventura Port District and in turn rents slips to boaters. The company owns about half of the slips at Ventura Harbor. Harbor officials said the other slip operators--Ventura West Marina, Ventura Marina, Ventura Yacht Club and Ventura Harbor Village--have not made any significant changes to their docks.

Richard Parsons, general manager of the Ventura Port District, called the face lift a “significant investment” in upgrading harbor facilities.

“I think it’s particularly impressive that they have done that in today’s economic conditions,” he said. “Slip vacancies are up all around Southern California.”

The project has also better prepared the company to handle new business when the market turns around, Short said.

In recent years, more people have been buying larger boats and the marina in the past did not have slips large enough to accommodate them, he said.

The renovation has allowed the company to put in longer slips to attract those customers, Short said. Before the project started, the average slip length was 28 feet. Now the average length is 35 feet.

“It gives us more flexibility,” he said. “I can put a smaller boat in a big slip, but it doesn’t work the other way around.”

The face lift has already attracted some new boaters to the harbor.

Sheila Enelow, who used to leave her boat at Channel Islands Harbor, said she recently moved to Ventura Harbor because she likes the newer docks.

“They’re beautiful,” she said.

Depending on the size of their vessel, boaters pay between $164 and $549 a month at Ventura Isle Marina.

According to Short, the company rents about half of its slips to sailboats and half to powerboats. About 60% of the renters live outside Ventura County--most are from the Los Angeles area.

Short said he is optimistic the demand for boat rentals will rise again.

“I’m a capitalist pig,” he said. “You don’t spend millions without expecting some return on it.”