What's a 200-slip marina in Florida actually worth? Ask a broker, a PE fund, and the owner who's been running it since 1987 — you'll get three wildly different numbers. That's the problem with marinas: the standard commercial real estate playbook doesn't quite work, and the people selling them know it.
We've tracked 130+ marina transactions. Here's what we've learned about how they're actually valued — and where buyers keep getting it wrong.
The Three Approaches to Marina Valuation
1. Income Approach (Cap Rate)
The income approach is the most common method used by institutional buyers. It works like this:
Marina Value = Net Operating Income (NOI) / Capitalization Rate
Cap rates for marinas in 2025-2026 typically range from 6% to 10%, depending on location, condition, and tenant quality. Stabilized, well-located marinas in Florida or the Northeast command cap rates as low as 6-7%, while value-add or secondary-market properties may trade at 8-10%.
For example, a marina generating $1.2M in NOI at an 8% cap rate would be valued at $15M. That same NOI at a 6.5% cap rate — typical for a coastal Florida property with long waitlists — would be worth $18.5M.
Use our Comparable Sales tool to see actual cap rates from recent transactions.
2. Comparable Sales (Price Per Slip)
Price per slip is the marina industry's version of "price per square foot." It's the quickest way to benchmark a deal and the metric that shows up in nearly every broker pitch deck.
Based on our transaction database of 130+ deals, here's what actual transactions look like:
- $8K–$30K/slip: Glastonbury Marina in CT sold for ~$8,100/slip. Sardis Lake Marina in MS at ~$9,200/slip. Harborview Marina in Baltimore at ~$10,400/slip. These are flood-damaged, rural, or deferred-maintenance properties.
- $30K–$80K/slip: Prairie Creek Marina in Rogers, AR at ~$40,000/slip (750+ slips). Harborage Yacht Club in Stuart, FL at ~$72,000/slip. The core mid-market where most deals happen.
- $80K–$180K/slip: Sunroad Marina in San Diego at ~$184,000/slip. Port Royal Landing in SC at ~$121,600/slip. Institutional-quality coastal assets with waitlists.
- $400K+/slip: Palm Beach Shores Marina at ~$463,000/slip. Montauk Yacht Club at ~$821,000/slip. At this level, land value and development potential drive pricing as much as marina income.
3. Replacement Cost
With permitting timelines stretching to 5-10 years and construction costs surging, replacement cost has become an increasingly important floor for marina valuations. Building a new marina from scratch — if you can even get the permits — costs $50K-$150K per slip in most coastal markets, before land.
This is why even distressed marinas in good locations trade at premiums: the entitlements alone are worth millions. When Blackstone paid $5.65B for Safe Harbor at ~$113,000/slip, they weren't buying docks — they were buying 50,000 permitted slips that can never be replicated. Honestly, replacement cost might be the most underused valuation approach in the industry right now. Buyers obsess over cap rates while ignoring the fact that the permits under their feet are worth more than the cash flow above them.
What Drives Premium Valuations
The highest-value marinas we track on our acquirer leaderboard tend to share these characteristics:
- Location: Coastal, deep water, proximity to affluent boating populations
- Waitlists: Slip demand exceeding supply is the strongest indicator of pricing power
- Ancillary revenue: Fuel, boat storage, repair services, restaurants, and retail
- Upland development potential: Waterfront land with mixed-use zoning
- Protected harbor: Natural or man-made storm protection
Red Flags in Marina Valuations
- Deferred maintenance on docks, seawalls, or pilings (can run $5K-$15K per slip to rebuild)
- Environmental liabilities from fuel operations or legacy contamination
- Lease vs. fee simple — many marinas operate on ground leases with limited remaining terms
- Below-market rents that inflate occupancy but mask true demand
Using Marina Deal Flow for Valuations
Our comparable sales tool lets you filter transactions by state, price range, and slip count to find true comps for any marina you're evaluating. Combined with our full transaction database and market whispers, you'll have the same data the institutional buyers use.
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