Boat slip sales really about marina membership

“Own your own boat slip on CDA Lake!” reads the real estate ad. “Privately owned marina. Showers, bathrooms & security.”

For sale: Two slips in the 11th Street Marina in Coeur d’Alene.

Asking price: $99,900 and $110,000.

Last week, acting Gov. Jim Risch said anyone trying to sell permanent moorage rights on state-owned lakes would be perpetrating a “scam.” If the moorage is resold later, it could create a “bizarre kind of market” with few rules attached, according to state Superintendent of Schools Marilyn Howard.

Their comments, made at a state Land Board meeting, were in response to a Bayview marina owner’s plans to sell boat slips on Lake Pend Oreille. The attorney for marina owner Bob Holland later clarified that Holland plans to sell Vista Bay Marina to a tenant-run co-op, not moorage rights in state-owned waters.

The Land Board didn’t discuss the 11th Street Marina during its meeting. But the board’s policy discussion has raised questions locally about advertisements of “Slips for Sale” at the marina near Sanders Beach and whether buyers are getting full disclosure.

Charlie Dodson, an attorney and board member of the 11th Street Dock Owners Association, said buyers realize they aren’t getting title to a slip.

The 11th Street Dock Owners Association formed about seven years ago as a nonprofit to purchase the 11th Street Marina, Dodson said. Owners buy and sell rights for use of the marina’s 113 boat slips on Lake Coeur d’Alene. The marina operates under a 10-year renewable lease with the state.

Dodson compared the situation to state land leases at Priest Lake. People buy $500,000 cabins on Priest Lake, he said, realizing that the structure they purchased is on land belonging to the state of Idaho.

The 11th Street Marina operates under the same general concept, he said.

People who buy into the marina “don’t own anything other than a right to lease,” he said. “We don’t sell slips; we don’t sell anything.”

He acknowledged that advertising by individual association members seems to indicate otherwise. But by the time buyers sign the papers, it should be clear that they are purchasing a marina membership, not a boat slip, Dodson said.

Each member has exclusive use of a boat slip, contingent on renewal of the marina’s lease, he said.

Since the Land Board meeting last Tuesday, however, state officials have fielded at least one phone call from an individual who thought the 11th Street Marina’s boat slips were owned by the purchasers.

Roger Jansson, operations chief for the Department of Land’s northern region, said it’s unclear whether the discussion at last Tuesday’s meeting will have any bearing on the 11th Street Marina’s operations.

“We really won’t know until we get further into it,” he said. “This whole issue is evolving.”

Jansson said Holland’s proposal for co-op ownership is under review by the state to see if it complies with Idaho code.

Holland cited the 11th Street Marina in a letter to tenants outlining plans to sell boat slips in the Vista Bay Marina, referring to recent 11th Street sales as the basis for Vista Bay slip prices of $100,000 or more.

Holland’s attorney, Steve Wetzel, later clarified that Holland plans to sell Vista Bay to a tenant co-op similar to 11th Street Dock Owners Association. Cape Horn Marina is also owned by a tenant co-op, Wetzel said.

Wetzel also sent a three-page letter to Risch, asking the acting governor to amend his comments that Holland is “perpetrating a scam.”

“To the best of my knowledge, no marina owner in Idaho is attempting to sell permanent boat moorage rights on state owned property,” the letter said.

Draft documents that Holland filed with the state clearly state that there is “no proposed sale of individual slips,” Wetzel’s letter said. Risch has not had time to respond to the letter, according to his press secretary.

Dodson said that all new members of the 11th Street Dock Owners Association receive a booklet with copies of the marina’s leases. In addition to the 10-year lease with the state, the marina operates under a 99-year lease with landowner JSB LLC, which owns the marina’s riparian rights.

Dodson said he’s confident that the 11th Street Marina’s lease with the state will be renewed when it expires at the end of 2007. The leases have been renewed for at least 40 years, he said.

According to Jansson, renewal of a commercial marina lease is “pretty much automatic” if the marina owners are abiding by the terms of the lease.