BlueWater Marinas and Bain Capital have acquired Mystic River Marina in Connecticut and Ripley Light Drystack Marina in Charleston, South Carolina. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
The transactions are the sixth and seventh marina acquisitions completed through the companies’ joint venture, extending a portfolio focused on established coastal boating markets along the US East Coast.
Mystic River Marina is a storage-led facility in Mystic that serves large vessels through seasonal and transient wet slips, supported by winter dry storage. Other operations include a parts and service department, fuel dock, ship store and boat brokerage, together with a café, customer lounge and pool.
The site has been operated by four generations of the Garbarino family. Gene “Poppa Gene” Garbarino and his brother Fred began dredging the property and installing docks in 1957. The business later passed to Gene’s sons Bob and Skip, followed by Bob’s daughter Lauren and her niece Kelcey.
Operating history
Ripley Light, close to central Charleston and Charleston Harbor, has served the Lowcountry boating market since 1988. It provides 220 dry-storage spaces for boats up to 40ft, with valet launching and retrieval, fuel, an on-site service department and an established boat club.
Both assets combine storage income with service and customer facilities. BlueWater principal Dunston Powell said the marinas have ‘deep operating histories, loyal customer bases, and diversified, highly recurring revenue streams’.
He added that BlueWater planned to continue investing in the customer experience.
Andrew Terris, a partner at Bain Capital Real Estate, said the firm continued to see opportunities in high-quality marina properties where boating demand is durable and new supply is difficult to develop.
He described both acquisitions as additions with distinctive local histories. The partners said their approach would be to build on the existing operations and community roles of the two marinas while continuing to scale the wider BlueWater platform.
