The locally based commercial developer hired Richard Graves to operate a marina that offers 2,500 linear feet of parallel docking space that is capable of storing 22 yachts that average from 70 feet to 140 feet in length. Scheduled to partially open March 1, the marina is part of a mixed-use community that includes 355 luxury rental apartments, retail shops and guest suites.
An hotelier by profession, Richard Graves is no stranger to the Fort Lauderdale marina industry. Back in the mid-1980s, Graves worked first as director of marketing and then as senior vice president at the 300-room Bahia Mar hotel and marina in downtown Fort Lauderdale. It was during that assignment when he applied some new concepts to hotel marina operations.
"I looked at a marina like a hotel," Graves tells GlobeSt.com. "One puts heads in beds, and the other puts boats in slips."
In the early 1990s, Graves started his own consulting company, which included writing a marketing plan on how to manage the 260 marina slips the Lincoln Harbor Yacht Club operated on the Hudson River. The company later hired him as director of operations, where he stayed until the company sold the property.
After that, Graves managed ferry operations for the New York Water Taxi and became involved in the International Marine Institute. Just prior to his recent assignment, Graves worked as marketing director at the Chinnock Marine yacht repair and refit facility in Fort Lauderdale.
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