Mill Bay Marina
The Rebuilding of Mill Bay Marina
The marina, destroyed in a massive storm on Easter of 2010, sat in disrepair until it eventually came up in foreclosure and was bought by Mill Bay Marina Inc.Staff Writer
Thanks to the vision of four local Mill Bay residents, this small west coast town of 3,000 is getting the boost it needs to flourish. Mill Bay Marina Inc. was formed for the purpose of putting together a project to revitalize Mill Bay and its marina. Cadillac Homes, headed by Cam Pringle and David Slang, and Ruskin Contractors, headed by Andrew Purdey, along with the managing director of the marina, Duane Shaw, are well underway with the rebuilding of the local marina, which is to be a full service, state of the art, concierge-class marina. They are presently breaking ground on 14 new, waterfront townhomes.
The marina, destroyed in a massive storm on Easter of 2010, sat in disrepair until it eventually came up in foreclosure and was bought by Mill Bay Marina Inc. “After looking into how the original marina was destroyed by huge waves in the 2010 storm,” Duane Shaw relayed, “we went out and did a wave study and determined what the 50 and 200 year storm events are - what the forecasted size of the waves will be - and we are building this marina to withstand a 200 year storm event.” With the entire breakwater engineered to withstand future storm events already installed and the construction of the marina begun, Shaw says that they hope to have the marina completed by early summer 2012.
Complete with full amenities; such as showers, laundry, gas, a marina store with boat rentals and fishing licenses, the marina building will also house a licensed bistro with both indoor and beautiful outdoor seating. The marina dock and breakwater (which doubles as a transient moorage area) will have 91 slips available for rental as well as 700 linear feet of transient moorage for boats from 20-55 feet. There will be a sanitation dump, 30 and 50 amp power, gas and diesel available, a large parking lot for day and overnight parking, as well as a new public boat launch. “Our existing boat launch is not quite steep enough” said Shaw, “it’s not usable through enough tide events. With our new, widened launch – that includes a dock and ramp – it will be much more accessible, at almost all tides.”
With his eye on the future of Mill Bay, Shaw proudly said, “We’re just four guys who love where we live…we got together and decided to make this happen. This whole facility will be fantastic for Mill Bay. It’s going to be a new center for this town… a conduit of economic traffic.”
The townhomes, overseen by Cadillac Homes, are scheduled to be completed by late 2012. For more information on these townhomes, the marina or Mill Bay itself, go to www.millbaymarina.ca.