By Tom Caestecker, Jr. Photos by Janice Gordon

Nestled in a section just off the Intra Coastal Waterway in Dania Beach, Florida, Harbor Towne Marina’s proactive dedication to
service of uncompromising quality and variety, along with tremendous customer satisfaction, makes it our 2003 Marina of the Year. This four-season facility encompasses 33 acres, and offers massive amounts of dry storage, plus a host of marine-related services in an 80,000-square-foot marine specialties building. There are also superlative marina mainstays: a 6,000-square-foot waterfront restaurant, fuel dock, ship’s store, pumpout facilities, and numerous other nautical amenities.

Purchased by California-based Westrec Marinas in late 1989, Harbour Towne has evolved from an eyesore of docks in disrepair to a sparkling facility, which undergoes substantial forms of renewal on an annual basis. Through Westrec’s management structure, the financial performance of the marina has grown by more than 700 percent since the facility was purchased. It has 165 wet slips, dry storage to accommodate 454 boats, and haul-out capabilities that are punctuated by an 88-ton travel lift. Harbour Towne is also involved in all aspects of the marine industry through leadership positions in professional organizations and associations. Employees are energetic, enthusiastic, and in tune with the marina industry, and their passionate involvement stems from Westrec-inspired standards.

“We have a Certificate of Completion from Westrec,” says Dockmaster Brad St. Coeur. “Every employee at our facility goes through a Westrec-run training seminar. Our employees are trained in fuel spill cleanup, emergency-response and hurricane response training, and more. Each individual manager of a particular facility is also trained using Westrec guidelines. We offer unparalleled customer service, and that’s a big thing in the marina business. Harbour Towne isn’t just some place you dock your boat; it’s an environment where people come to have fun and recreate.

“Harbour Towne is the flagship operation of all of Westrec’s managed and owned properties on the Eastern Seaboard,” St. Coeur continues. “By offering retail space, wet and dry storage, top-of-the-line service and amenities, and close proximity to Ft. Lauderdale—the yachting capital of the world—it makes it truly a year-round facility, of which Westrec is very proud.”

Dry storage makes the margin
At the outset of the Westrec ownership, the docks were rebuilt, and they continue to get considerable attention, as Harbour Towne has added extended finger piers to accommodate the trend toward larger boats. St. Coeur says even though the piers are totally built out, the marina is always exploring avenues to possible expansion. The big project of late is the construction of a new super-yacht slip, which will be able to accommodate a 130-foot boat.

A major source of revenue for Harbour Towne is its dry storage facility. A two-phase building project several years ago allowed the marina to increase its dry storage capacity by 200-plus boats. The current dry storage offerings are a direct response to the trend towards bigger boats, and to customer demand, as many don’t want their boat bottoms to be fouled by the saltwater elements.

“We’ve reconfigured some of our indoor dry storage racks to accommodate larger boats,” St. Coeur says. “This has been the biggest profit center because of an increased demand just in the last few years. A boat’s average size back then was 25 feet; now it’s 31 feet. This increase in size has led to a corresponding increase in our revenues.

“Our typical dry storage customer tends to be a middle-aged, blue-collar worker,” adds St. Coeur. “We have a variety of boaters here; we’re well-rounded. We can accommodate the high-performance boat up to 47 feet, as well as the sport fish boat of the same length, by using our 27,000-pound capacity marine forklift.”

Everything you need in one place
Another of the marina’s significant profit centers is its relatively new set of dock/storage lockers, which command a $75 monthly fee.

“We wanted to provide a solution to our customers’ storage needs,” St. Coeur says, “so they wouldn’t have to transport their gear back and forth from their vehicles. We started out with 24 of them, and they were all rented even before construction was completed. We presently have 58 lockers, and all of them are filled.”

Harbour Towne has four public launching ramps. A $6 fee includes vehicle and trailer storage, use of a fish-cleaning station, and a place to wash boats.
An 80,000-square-foot marine specialties building houses a score of tenants, including brokerages, custom woodworkers, engine specialists, and designers.
Dock lockers provide a convenient solution to customer storage needs, and are a solid source of marina revenue.

When it comes to servicing the various boats at Harbour Towne, the marina’s service yard is run somewhat differently than other facilities. It’s what the marina calls a “cooperative” between tenants (those who lease space in the marine specialties building). Harbour Towne owns and operates the travel lift, and all tenants can access the yard; however, there is no self-service component.

“Anyone who comes off the street, or off the water, contracts with the tenants on the property to do the necessary work,” St. Coeur says.

Those tenants make up some 25 marine-related businesses, such as brokerages, engine repair specialists, interior design experts, custom woodworkers, and yacht detailers, just to name a few. This array of offerings ensures that all vessel owners, whether grizzled veterans of the sea, or new converts to the boating lifestyle, will find almost everything they need in one place.

Location means hefty market share
Harbour Towne has a formidable method of attracting its clientele, using a top-notch advertising and marketing strategy. As a Westrec Marina, Harbour Towne enjoys extensive exposure through Westrec’s group advertising and booth presence at trade shows. The advertising campaign reaches several glossy publications such as ShowBoats International and the Southern Waterway Guide. St. Coeur says the marina also advertises in the local newspapers, such as Ft. Lauderdale’s Sun Sentinel and Dockwalk. In 2001, Harbour Towne installed its own AM radio channel with the help of the University of Florida Sea Grant program. This allows customers and guests who are driving onto the marina grounds to listen to 1640 AM, and hear the latest weather report, plus information about the tenants that do business there.

Even though Harbour Towne is dedicated to its marketing efforts, the marina’s location makes wooing boaters a pretty easy chore. “We’ve got a captive audience,” St. Coeur says. “When sport-fish boats and sailboats want easy access, without having to wait for bridges, we can offer that kind of unmatched convenience.”

As for other marketing pursuits, parent company Westrec is in the process of updating its web site, www.westrec.com, to not only include complete information and graphics on each of the company’s marinas, but also a direct e-mail option for reservations and information, and links to other marine-related sites.

All the marketing in the world does no good, however, if customers aren’t pleased with the product. Harbour Towne pleases even the most demanding guests with its numerous amenities, such as the restaurant, a fuel dock that features a well-stocked ship’s store, and a customer/crew lounge. The restaurant, called The Harbor Grille, is available for customers and marina guests, as well as the general public who come by land and sea. There are a plethora of offerings in the ship’s store, such as live and frozen bait, freshly made sandwiches, beer and wine, sundries, boat washing supplies, and safety equipment. What’s more, the staff at the ship’s store can take custom rod orders for sport fish enthusiasts.

For both employees and those who arrive for an early-morning sail or cruise, the customer/crew lounge serves a full continental breakfast seven days a week. In addition, the lounge offers Internet hook-up, complimentary local phone, and has continual Weather Channel broadcasts.

A beer, a barbeque, and helping kids
A variety of events also influence the substantial customer satisfaction with Harbour Towne. These activities encourage the public into the marina, increase customer loyalty, and promote sound boating practices. Events can include educational seminars on fishing, CPR, and hurricane preparedness, but there are some other leisurely, fun occasions, which usually coincide with holidays.

The Harbor Grille features waterfront dining for those who want a great meal in a marina setting.

“We have a barbeque every Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day,” St. Coeur says. “These are ‘customer appreciation parties.’ We also celebrate National Marina Day (this year’s party will be on August 14), and along with getting people interested in boating, we have a fishing clinic, and pass out free life jackets. For the kids, we bring in a touch tank filled with marine life, and have a local artist do face painting.

“Another activity we have is a rendezvous down to Key Largo,” St. Coeur adds. “It’s usually held in June, and last year we had 62 people and 30 boats go down there for a ‘fun-filled weekend.’”

Of course, some of the events that are most meaningful to Harbour Towne, and to the community, are the ones that don’t have profit as the number one concern. Rather, the objective is to help those in need—specifically, children with chronic medical conditions. The marina has formed a non-profit organization dedicated to this cause, called “Helping Hands of Harbour Towne.” This organization holds an annual event at the marina called “Saint Patty’s Day Fishing Tournament,” and this will be its 14th year. The tournament committee picks a local child or children with a life-threatening medical condition to benefit from the proceeds of the event. Last year saw two children split more than $23,000 for their medical trusts.

“We have a raffle and silent auction the night before the tournament,” St. Coeur says. “We have a gentleman’s tournament, with prize money awarded to different categories (men’s, women’s, and youth). It gets larger every year. Many people keep coming back, and a lot of generous folks will give back some of their prize money to further benefit the children.”

Harbour Towne also is involved in local education enrichment, sponsoring projects for the Broward County schools, as well as for the local marine industry, through the Partners in Education Marine Science and Technology Program. The latter is a program that allows businesses to help school children participate in activities that cover a variety of subjects. The marina also has helped to develop a Marine Magnet School at Broward’s New River Middle School, which targets students who have an interest in pursuing a career in the marine industry.

Keeping it clean
Since so much attention is geared toward customer satisfaction, service, and community/philanthropic pursuits, one would wonder how Harbour Towne is able to dedicate sufficient time and resources to protecting the environment. But the marina approaches this delicate matter with the same diligence as their other endeavors. Perhaps this dedication is most apparent in the marina’s legacy as the first facility in South Florida to simultaneously receive the Clean Marina and Clean Boatyard designations from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). In addition, Harbour Towne received the Broward County Emerald Award (the county’s own symbol of environmental stewardship).

The marina is also a site sponsor for the annual “Waterway Clean-up,” held every spring, and coordinated by the Marine Industries Association of South Florida. The event has been held for more than a quarter century, attracting thousands of participants, and collecting nearly 60,000 tons of trash annually.

At Harbour Towne, all staff and tenants follow the county’s Best Management Practices (BMP’s). Outside contractors are informed of the marina’s rules and environmental policies. Customers are bound to agree with all environmental measures when they sign their lease agreements, which are accompanied by a Harbour Towne Environmental Awareness Contract.

“We’ve installed a Nova-chem system, which is a device that filters/removes contaminants from the water, which result from power-washing boats in the service yard,” St. Coeur says. “The contaminants are treated chemically until the water is deemed clean enough to discharge into the city’s sanitary sewer line. In addition, we’ve moved the power-washing area so that no contaminants will run into the surface waters. We use a material underneath the boats called Geo-textile. Water will filter through it, but contaminants and other particles cannot.”

Harbour Towne also has installed catch basins in its staging areas (where dry storage boats are removed from the water), and uses a product called Myclex, which captures hydrocarbons from boats when the engines are flushed, preventing these elements from contaminating the surface waters.

“The DEP has featured Harbour Towne in its training manuals and info-mercials,” says St. Coeur, who is the chairman of the Best Management Practices Committee for the Clean Marina Partnership. “We’ve gone beyond the call of duty, and the DEP has recognized that through these awards and the fact that they have us as the backdrop for their videos.”

“Westrec has very specific, defined, and standardized procedures for this environmentally conscious approach,” St. Coeur says. “Westrec’s standard operating procedures implement a combination of environmental concern, customer satisfaction, and retail offerings on its properties, and this stems from the overall marina philosophy. We’re on the cutting edge, as far as management is concerned. This is all closely monitored, and employees play a huge role in keeping Harbour Towne Marina a first class facility.

“We don’t want people to have to come here and have it become a task to enjoy their boat. We simply want them to enjoy boating and relax and have fun while they’re here.”

Overall, Harbour Towne means many things to a variety of boaters—and South Florida citizens—alike. It has made itself not only the standard-bearer in the region for its parent, Westrec, but a beacon for a number of marine organizations and like-minded people both inside and outside the industry. It’s because of all these reasons, and all the accolades and details mentioned above, that Harbour Towne is a role model for all marinas.