Inside Self-Storage Article

A perfect storm for remote dry-stack boat storage

by Mike Wiggins

When real estate developer Southfork & Company bought a self-storage facility in El Dorado Hills, Calif., in June 2003, it immediately added a 20,000-square-foot building on the property to store up to 150 recreational vehicles and boats.

Now Southfork’s storage division, GoldKey Storage, stacks boats at the facility in industrial racks on three levels, increasing its potential revenue per square foot.

GoldKey isn’t done yet. It purchased an additional 3.5 acres in the same business park and is constructing a GoldKey boathouse capable of storing as many as 400 boats and recreational vehicles. The building, designed especially for boat and RV storage, will be able to house 40-foot boats – with trailers – in three levels and is scheduled to be complete by February 2006.

And here’s the rub – GoldKey already has a waiting list of boat and RV owners for the new facility.

Developers like GoldKey are increasingly seeing the benefits of acquiring property away from harbors and marinas for construction of boat storage facilities.

From real estate prices to weather concerns, many factors are continuing to combine to make remote dry-stack storage an attractive alternative to the traditional ways boat owners have cared for what is typically one of their prized possessions.

Converging currents
For some time, the marina industry has been moving from wet storage to dry storage and from ground storage to rack storage. Many marinas have built onsite rack facilities where boats are stored using high-powered forklifts.

But dry-stack storage isn’t just for marinas anymore. Remote dry storage facilities are located away from high-cost waterfront areas. They offer excellent opportunities for boat dealers, who can offer customers a place to store and protect their boats.

Waterfront real estate is an increasingly hot commodity, industry experts say. Property fronting a lake or ocean can easily run 30 percent to 50 percent higher in value than real estate just a few miles away. So companies offering remote or off-site dry-stack storage are able to offer boaters a more cost-effective way to keep their boats safe.

That increase in value is certainly driven in part by heightened interest in recreational boating. Boat registrations have more than doubled over the past 30 years, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association, driven by higher standards of living and increased leisure time.

But while waterfront real estate is increasing in value and more people are taking advantage of recreational boating, the overall number of marinas is decreasing, according to Patrick Farrell of Coastal Marine International Inc. writing in the January 2003 issue of Inside Self Storage. Waterfront boat storage is in shorter supply in locations like Florida and Mississippi, where developers planning condominiums have been paying marina owners top dollar for their land. For example, in June 2005, the Clearwater Times in Florida reported a dearth of waterfront boat storage options because several of the area’s largest marinas had been torn down to make way for condos. In communities where deed restrictions and city ordinances prohibit storing boats at residences, that leaves boat owners with few options.

Finally, boat owners must continually deal with worries about the weather. Just in 2005, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma destroyed waterfront storage facilities from Texas to Florida, crushing dozens of warehouses and destroying hundreds of boats. BoatUS – the Boat Owners Association of the United States – now encourages its members to store their boats away from the water and in enclosed facilities to avoid damage from storms as well as vandals.

Getting a lift
The concept of remote storage is simple. Developers find property away from the water where the land is properly zoned for storage, typically 15 to 30 minutes from a boat launch. The building is designed with racks to stack boats and trailers to maximize the number stored and to offer protection from the elements and vandalism.

Upscale services at some remote dry-stack storage operators can rival those of the marina. For example, GoldKey will wash and detail customer boats after a day on the water and will fuel and stock the boat with food before an outing. The company even offers a valet service that will have the boat at the lake and ready for use when owners want.

When GoldKey built its storage building in Northern California, company officials called Dale Gilbert at Roof and Rack, one of the nation’s top boat storage design and construction companies, in Boca Raton, Fla., to help the company design and build its storage building. The Wiggins Marina Bull, a specialized forklift manufactured by Wiggins Lift Co., is used to stack customer boats. The Wiggins Marina Bull’s fork and carriage are designed to efficiently handle boat and trailer and permits the operator to safely stack them up to six high. Many storage facilities expand storage options by leaving enough first-level clearance for recreational vehicles,

Gold Key has a drop-off area where customers can leave a boat or trailer. This acts as a staging area so the operator can retrieve them in a timely manner. The operator attaches the trailer to a ball-hitch mounted on the fork of a small industrial forklift. He then pushes the trailer onto a portable loading ramp designed by Wiggins Lift Co. The boat and trailer is then lifted off the ramp by the Marina Bull and placed in its designated rack, where it stays until it’s owner calls to have it retrieved and ready for pick up.

As the leader in the marina lift industry, Wiggins Lift Company has consulted with many boat dealers. Dealers have indicated that if they can tell potential customers where they can keep their boats when they aren’t in use, they could probably sell more boats. The days of being able to park a boat and trailer on the street are quickly becoming a thing of the past. When a boater spends $15,000 to $60,000 for a boat, he expects to be able to protect that investment and keep it like new as long as he can. The “remote storage” business can offer an affordable way of doing just that.

Mike Wiggins is the president of Wiggins Lift Co. Inc. of Oxnard, California, which manufactures the Wiggins Marina Bull used for dry-stack storage. Wiggins Lift makes an extensive line of lift trucks for marina, stevedoring, storage and rough-terrain uses. For more information, call 805.485.7821, e-mail mikew@wigginslift.com or visit www.wigginslift.com.

Wiggins Lift Co., Inc.

2571 Cortez Street
Oxnard, CA 9306-1642
United States

Phone: 805-485-7821
Fax: 805-485-5230
E-mail: wigginslift@wigginslift.com

(www.wigginslift.com)