BlueWater Marinas and Bain Capital Acquire Two New Marinas

BlueWater Marinas (“BlueWater”) and Bain Capital recently acquired Mystic River Marina (“Mystic River”), a full-service marina in Mystic, Connecticut, and Ripley Light Drystack Marina (“Ripley Light”), a drystack marina in Charleston, South Carolina. The two acquisitions are the sixth and seventh marinas BlueWater and Bain Capital have acquired as part of their joint venture. 

Located in Mystic, Connecticut, Mystic River Marina is one of the oldest continually family-owned marinas on the Eastern Seaboard and has long served large vessels in one of the Northeast’s most sought-after boating destinations, as stated in a news release. The Class A, storage-centric marina is anchored by large wet slips serving seasonal and transient boaters, complemented by winter dry storage. The marina also offers a parts and service department, fuel dock, ship store and on-site boat brokerage, along with a popular breakfast café, customer lounge and pool.

The second acquisition, Ripley Light, is a leading drystack marina minutes from downtown Charleston, South Carolina, with convenient access to Charleston Harbor and the region’s surrounding waterways, according to the news release. Serving the Lowcountry boating community since 1988, the marina features 220 dry storage slips accommodating vessels up to 40 feet. The property offers a full-service boating experience, including valet-style launch and retrieval, fuel, an on-site service department and an established boat club.

Dunston Powell, a Principal at BlueWater Marinas, said in the news release, “Mystic River and Ripley Light both represent the caliber of marina we set out to acquire, properties located in core coastal boating markets with deep operating histories, loyal customer bases, and diversified, highly recurring revenue streams. We’re excited to welcome both teams to the BlueWater family and to continue investing in the experience our customers expect.”

“We continue to see attractive opportunities in marina real estate, particularly high-quality assets in established boating markets where demand is durable and new supply is difficult to develop,” added Andrew Terris, a Partner at Bain Capital Real Estate. “Mystic River and Ripley Light are strong additions to the platform we are building with BlueWater, each with a distinctive history and an important place in its local boating community. We look forward to investing alongside BlueWater to build on what has made these marinas successful while continuing to thoughtfully scale the portfolio.”