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How Much Does It Cost to Start a Marina in 2026?

By Muhammad Tayyab Shabbir, Business Plan Firm, the US practice of Avvale. Last updated 11 September 2026.

A new 100-slip commercial marina in the United States runs roughly $3.0 million to $32.2 million, with about $9.6 million typical, on our own build-up below. The biggest single driver is not the docks. It is whether your basin needs dredging, a breakwater and a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit with compensatory mitigation. One coastal wetland mitigation credit in North Carolina costs $795,168.94. Buying an existing marina buys the permits already granted.

Verify every figure below with the named agency before committing capital. Fee schedules, lease rates and permit conditions change, and several of the numbers here are dated to a specific effective date that will move.

Cost at a glance: a new 100-slip marina, 2026

What this table excludes. It excludes the annual state submerged-lands lease, which is an operating cost and is covered in its own section below. It excludes any mitigation beyond a single coastal wetland credit, and a permit can require several. It excludes marina management software, insurance and staffing. The low column assumes a protected, already deep basin with no dredging, no breakwater and no wetland impact, which is rare.

What actually drives the cost of building a marina?

Four things, in this order.

Water depth and shelter. If the basin already carries adequate depth and is naturally protected, you are buying docks and utilities. If it does not, you are buying dredging and a breakwater before you buy a single slip, and those two lines alone can be larger than the entire dock package.

What is on the bottom. Seagrass, wetland, oyster reef and Essential Fish Habitat convert a routine dock project into a Clean Water Act Section 404 review with compensatory mitigation attached. This is the line that moves a budget by seven figures, and it is the line that no competing page on this query models at all.

Slip mix. Larger slips need deeper water, heavier piles, wider fairways and more shore power per slip. A marina rebuilt for 50-foot and 60-foot vessels is not the same build as one for 26-foot centre consoles.

Whether you build or buy. Covered in detail below. Buying acquires the existing federal permit, the existing state lease and the grandfathered footprint. Those are frequently worth more than the docks.

What permits does a marina need, and what do they cost?

There are three separate approvals and they run in parallel, not in sequence.

Step 1: US Army Corps of Engineers, Section 10 and Section 404

Any structure or work in navigable waters of the United States requires authorisation under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act. Any discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States also requires a Section 404 permit. The application fee is small: 33 CFR 325.1(f) sets it at $100 where the planned or ultimate purpose of the project is commercial or industrial, and $10 for non-commercial work. The fee is not the cost. The review is.

Step 2: the nationwide permit fork

The Corps reissued the nationwide permits on 8 January 2026 (91 FR 768). They took effect on 15 March 2026 and expire on 15 March 2031. Founders often assume a nationwide permit will cover a marina. Read the actual texts and it usually will not.

• NWP 10, Mooring Buoys, authorises in full: "Non-commercial, single-boat, mooring buoys."
• NWP 36, Boat Ramps, covers construction, repair or replacement of a boat ramp only, and only if the ramp "does not exceed 20 feet in width" absent a written waiver and if "No material is placed in special aquatic sites, including wetlands."
• NWP 35, Maintenance Dredging of Existing Basins, authorises "The removal of accumulated sediment for maintenance of existing marina basins, access channels to marinas or boat slips, and boat slips to previously authorized depths or controlling depths for ingress/egress, whichever is less."

Note what NWP 35 does and does not do. It maintains an existing basin. It does not create a new one. That single word is the strongest financial argument for acquiring rather than building. We have not been able to identify a nationwide permit that authorises construction of a new multi-slip commercial marina, so plan for an individual permit and confirm the point with your Corps district before you assume anything.

Step 3: the state

Every coastal and Great Lakes state runs its own review, and the fees are published. In Florida, the Environmental Resource Permit processing fee under Fla. Admin. Code R. 62-4.050(4)(h) is $420 for a project under 10 acres with fewer than 10 new slips, $1,500 for fewer than 30 new slips, $5,000 for fewer than 50 new slips, and $9,000 for the tier above that, which is where a 100-slip marina lands. A determination of qualification to use a general permit is $250.

How long does marina permitting take?

Two forks, two very different timelines.

The nationwide permit fork. Where a nationwide permit genuinely applies, General Condition 32 lets the work begin once "45 calendar days have passed from the district engineer's receipt of the complete PCN and the prospective permittee has not received written notice from the district or division engineer." That clock does not run while endangered species or historic properties consultation is open, and the Corps states plainly in the 2026 rule that the Section 106 process has no mandatory timeline and may take longer than 45 days.

The individual permit fork. Under 33 CFR 325.2(d), the public notice comment period "should not be more than 30 days nor less than 15 days from the date of the notice," and "District engineers will decide on all applications not later than 60 days after receipt of a complete application, unless" one of six listed exceptions applies. Those exceptions include an extended comment period, referral to higher authority, and information that cannot reasonably be obtained within 60 days. In practice the exceptions are what govern a contested marina application, because the clock only starts on a complete application and the Corps determines completeness.

We are not aware of a published, current Corps statistic for average individual permit processing time for marina projects. If you need a planning number, ask your Corps district regulatory office directly for their recent decision times on comparable in-water commercial projects. Do not budget off a figure you read on a vendor blog, including a range in months quoted without a source.

What does the state charge you every year to use the bottom?

This is the line item missing from every page currently ranking for this query, and it is the most common omission in a first-time marina pro forma. You do not own the bottom. You lease it, annually, for as long as you operate.

Florida. The Board of Trustees sets a sovereignty submerged lands base rate that is adjusted every 1 March. Effective 1 March 2026 it is $0.2259 per square foot per year, with a minimum annual fee of $677.58, after a CPI adjustment of 4.5 percent. Inside qualifying aquatic preserve areas the rate doubles to $0.4518. A 30 percent discount applies where no less than 90 percent of slips are open to the public on a first come first served rental basis, and a further 10 percent discount applies to Clean Marina Program designees in good standing. Critically, Fla. Admin. Code R. 18-21.011 requires the greater of six percent of annual income, the base fee, or the minimum annual fee, and income means gross receipts from wet slip tenancy over sovereign submerged land.

What that means in practice. Our own worked example, using our assumptions for footprint and revenue rather than published figures: a marina preempting 120,000 square feet pays a base fee of $27,108 a year. If that marina bills $900,000 of wet slip revenue, six percent is $54,000, and the six percent figure governs because the rule takes whichever is greater. The 30 percent public access discount would reduce the base fee to $18,975.60, which changes nothing, because the base fee was not the binding number. Model the revenue percentage, not the square footage, for a revenue-producing marina.

New York. A different regime entirely. Public Lands Law section 75 provides that for commercial use of structures on state-owned underwater lands, "the annual fee imposed shall not exceed two percent of the user's net annual income for structures not in existence on the effective date of this paragraph," and that calculation excludes boat sales, boat repairs and gasoline sales. Two percent of net, not six percent of gross, with the highest-margin service lines carved out.

Michigan. A marina on Great Lakes bottomlands requires a lease from EGLE under Part 325 of NREPA, and the lease carries an annual fee. We could not retrieve a published per-square-foot schedule for Michigan bottomlands leases. Do not assume a rate. Contact EGLE's Water Resources Division and get the rent quoted for your specific footprint in writing before you underwrite the deal.

What is compensatory mitigation going to cost?

If your Section 404 permit authorises impacts to wetland, seagrass or other aquatic resource, the permit will require compensatory mitigation, and the usual route is buying credits. Published in-lieu fee schedules give you a real order of magnitude. North Carolina's Division of Mitigation Services rates effective 1 July 2026 are $795,168.94 per coastal wetland credit, $98,105.66 per freshwater wetland credit and $911.81 per stream credit.

Read that first number again. Coastal wetland mitigation in North Carolina is priced at roughly three quarters of a million dollars per credit. The number of credits your project needs is not set by a formula you can look up. It is specified in the certification and the Corps permit. Ask your district, in writing, what credit requirement they would expect for your impact footprint before you buy the land.

How do buyers finance a marina, and what does SBA do differently?

SBA is the reason this question converts, and it is absent from every page currently ranking. The governing document is SOP 50 10. Version 8 took effect 1 June 2025 and version 8.1 takes effect 1 October 2026.

A marina is a named SBA Limited or Special Purpose Property

"Marinas" appears on SBA's list of Limited or Special Purpose Properties in SOP 50 10 8.1, introduced with the caveat that "This list is not intended to be all-inclusive and SBA may determine that other properties meet the Limited or Special Purpose Property definition." Two consequences follow.

504 borrower contribution rises. Under SOP 50 10 8.1, all borrowers contribute at least 10 percent. A new business contributes at least 15 percent. A business with a Limited or Special Purpose Property contributes at least 15 percent, and where the project involves both a new business and a special purpose property, the borrower "Must contribute at least 20%". At 20 percent the debenture finances no more than 30 percent of the project and at least 50 percent comes from the third party lender. A first-time operator building a new marina hits the 20 percent case.

The appraisal changes. SOP 50 10 8.1 requires that "When the collateral is a Special Purpose Property, the appraiser must be experienced in the particular industry," and where the engagement letter asks for a business enterprise or going concern value, the appraiser must allocate separate values to land, building, equipment and business including intangibles. You are not being valued on the dirt.

The eligibility trap nobody tells you about

This is the most important paragraph on this page. SOP 50 10 8.1, in the passive business rules, states: "Hotels, motels, recreational vehicle parks, marinas, campgrounds, or similar types of businesses are eligible if more than 50% of the business's revenue for the prior year is derived from transients who stay for 30 days or less at a time and the business complies with all zoning and other legal requirements." For a start-up, the projections must show the same thing.

A marina whose revenue is predominantly annual and seasonal slip leases does not obviously clear that test. Take this to your lender and to SBA before you spend money on an application. It is a question of eligibility, not of credit, and it is the question we would ask first.

7(a), 504 or conventional

The maximum Standard 7(a) loan is $5,000,000, and a 7(a) loan to a start-up requires an equity injection of at least 10 percent of total project costs. The 504 gross debenture is capped at an outstanding $5,000,000 in aggregate per small business including affiliates, with $5,500,000 available only for eligible energy public policy projects and small manufacturers. A marina is neither.

Do the arithmetic against the table at the top of this page. A $9.6 million typical build cannot be done inside a $5 million 7(a) ceiling. A 504 structure stacks a third party lender loan with the debenture and your contribution, which is why 504 is usually the sensible route for the real estate and dock construction, with the third party lender carrying the majority of the project. Whether any particular lender will do it is that lender's decision, and a marina is a specialist asset with a thin buyer pool at foreclosure.

Should you buy an existing marina instead?

Frequently, yes. When you buy, you acquire the existing Corps authorisation, the existing state submerged-lands lease with its established footprint, and a basin whose maintenance dredging can proceed under NWP 35 rather than a new individual permit. You also acquire an operating history, which is what makes an SBA going concern appraisal work and what answers a lender's debt service question. You skip the mitigation exposure entirely, because you are not creating new impacts.

What you inherit instead is deferred maintenance, a lease whose renewal terms you did not negotiate, and possibly a seawall at the end of its life. Price a full condition survey of the piles, the seawall and the utilities into your diligence budget.

Is this viable for you? Sometimes the honest answer is no

We would tell you not to proceed if any of the following is true.

• You have under $2 million of genuine equity and want to build. A special purpose property plus a new business is a 20 percent 504 contribution, and on a $9.6 million project that is $1.92 million before working capital.
• Your site has seagrass, wetland or reef anywhere in the proposed footprint and you have not costed mitigation. One coastal wetland credit at North Carolina's published rate exceeds the entire dock package on a small marina.
• Most of your projected revenue is annual slip leases and you are relying on SBA. See the transient revenue test above.
• You need to be open in under two years. The 60-day decision rule in 33 CFR 325.2(d) has six exceptions, and the clock does not start until the Corps calls your application complete.
• You have not spoken to your state submerged lands office. The annual lease is a permanent operating expense and in Florida it is calculated on gross wet slip receipts.

For context on what a full waterfront rebuild costs at municipal scale: the City of St. Petersburg has budgeted $148 million for the revitalisation of its 640-slip municipal marina, a scope that includes a 100 percent floating dock system, seawall replacement, a bridge, utilities, stormwater, roads and at least 14,700 square feet of new buildings. That is not a per-slip construction cost, because most of that scope is not slips, but it is a real, published number for a real project and it is a useful sanity check against any figure that sounds too small.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a federal permit to build a marina?

Yes, in navigable waters of the United States. Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act covers structures and work, and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act covers discharges of dredged or fill material. The application fee under 33 CFR 325.1(f) is $100 for commercial purposes. Whether you can use a nationwide permit or need an individual permit is decided by your Corps district.

Can a nationwide permit cover a new commercial marina?

Unlikely. NWP 10 covers only non-commercial, single-boat mooring buoys. NWP 36 covers boat ramps within stated limits. NWP 35 covers maintenance dredging of existing marina basins, not creation of new ones. We have not identified a 2026 nationwide permit that authorises construction of a new multi-slip commercial marina. Confirm with your district office rather than assuming.

How much is the annual submerged lands lease in Florida?

Effective 1 March 2026 the base rate is $0.2259 per square foot per year, with a $677.58 minimum annual fee, doubled to $0.4518 inside qualifying aquatic preserve areas. Rule 18-21.011 then requires the greater of six percent of annual income, the base fee or the minimum. For a revenue-producing marina the six percent calculation frequently governs.

Does SBA lend on marinas?

A marina appears on SBA's Limited or Special Purpose Property list in SOP 50 10 8.1, so it is a recognised property type. Eligibility turns on the passive business rules, which require that more than 50 percent of prior year revenue comes from transients staying 30 days or less. Raise that test with your lender before applying. Individual lenders make their own credit decisions.

How much equity will an SBA 504 lender require?

Per SOP 50 10 8.1, at least 10 percent as standard, at least 15 percent for a new business, at least 15 percent for a Limited or Special Purpose Property, and at least 20 percent where the project involves both. A new marina built by a first-time operator is the 20 percent case, which also caps the debenture at 30 percent of the project.

What does compensatory mitigation cost?

It depends on the credit type and the state. North Carolina's Division of Mitigation Services publishes rates effective 1 July 2026 of $795,168.94 per coastal wetland credit, $98,105.66 per freshwater wetland credit and $911.81 per stream credit. The number of credits required is set in your permit, not by a published formula, so ask your Corps district what they would expect.

Is it cheaper to buy an existing marina than to build one?

Usually, and not only on the purchase price. An existing marina comes with a granted federal authorisation, an established submerged-lands lease footprint, no new mitigation exposure, and maintenance dredging available under NWP 35. It also comes with an operating history, which is what makes an SBA going concern appraisal and a debt service calculation possible.

How long does the whole approval process take?

Where a nationwide permit applies, General Condition 32 permits work after 45 calendar days from receipt of a complete pre-construction notification with no written response, subject to species and historic properties consultation that has no fixed deadline. An individual permit carries a 60-day decision rule under 33 CFR 325.2(d) with six exceptions, and the clock starts only when the Corps deems the application complete.

What a lender will ask you for

Before a bank, a Certified Development Company or an SBA lender takes your marina project seriously, have these ready.

• Your Corps of Engineers authorisation or, at minimum, a written jurisdictional determination and a pre-application meeting record.
• The executed or draft state submerged-lands lease, with the annual fee calculation shown on both the square footage basis and the percentage-of-revenue basis.
• A written mitigation requirement from the permitting agency, or written confirmation that none applies.
• A revenue model that separates transient revenue from annual and seasonal slip leases, because SBA eligibility turns on that split.
• A specialist appraisal from an appraiser experienced in marinas, with land, improvements, equipment and business value allocated separately.
• A condition survey of piles, seawall and utilities if you are acquiring.
• Three years of projections with a debt service coverage calculation, plus your documented equity injection at the 15 or 20 percent level the special purpose rules require.

We build exactly this package. If you want the permit pathway, the state lease modelling and the SBA structure worked through against your actual site before you spend money on engineering, bring us the site.

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Business Plan Firm is the US practice of Avvale, a London consultancy. We have helped clients raise $500M+ across 500+ companies in 30+ countries, consulting since 2021. Avvale Ltd was incorporated in April 2023, company no. 14805382. We hold 4 stars on Trustpilot. Business plans from $1,000. SBA loan plans from $1,000. Feasibility studies from $3,900, and from $14,000 for complex projects.

This page is general information, not legal, engineering or financing advice. Fee schedules and lease rates change on published effective dates. Verify with the named agency before committing capital.

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