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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 13 October 2026. SBA rules re-read against SOP 50 10 8.1 (effective 1 October 2026) on 11 October 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. North Carolina's in-lieu fee program prices one coastal wetland credit at $795,168.94 (statewide standard rate effective 1 July 2026). Buying an existing marina can bring its permits with it, but not automatically: the Corps permit transfer has to be validated and, in Florida and Michigan, the state must approve the lease assignment.

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.

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. Wetland, seagrass, oyster reef and other aquatic resources in the footprint are what can bring compensatory mitigation into a marina permit: under Clean Water Act Section 404 where you discharge dredged or fill material, and under the Corps public interest review for Section 10 work. This is the line that can move a budget by seven figures.

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 center consoles.

Whether you build or buy. Covered in detail below. Buying can carry over the existing federal permit and the existing state lease, but not automatically in the rules we read.

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

There are three things to work through: the federal permit, whether a nationwide permit can stand in for an individual one, and the state.

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

Any structure or work in navigable waters of the United States requires authorization under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act. A discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States also requires a Section 404 permit, unless an exemption in 33 U.S.C. 1344(f) applies. 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. Do not assume a nationwide permit will cover a new marina. Read the texts.

• NWP 10, Mooring Buoys, authorizes 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, authorizes "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 authorizes 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

Ask your state agency what it requires; we read one state's fees. In Florida, the individual Environmental Resource Permit processing fee under Fla. Admin. Code R. 62-4.050(4)(h), the fee schedule of the Department and the Northwest Florida Water Management District, is tiered by project area, by acres of works in wetlands and other surface waters, and by new boat slips. On slip count it is $420 for fewer than 10 new slips, $1,500 for fewer than 30, $5,000 for fewer than 50 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 default does not apply where your notification had to flag listed species, critical habitat or historic properties. The same condition then says the permittee "cannot begin the activity until receiving written notification from the Corps", and General Conditions 18 and 20 say a non-federal applicant who has not heard back from the Corps within 45 days "must still wait for notification from the Corps". The Corps also 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. The clock only starts on a complete application, and under 33 CFR 325.2(a) the district engineer determines whether it is complete.

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?

Where the basin sits over state-owned submerged land, you do not own the bottom. Florida and Michigan lease it to you for an annual fee, and New York caps the annual fee it may charge for commercial structures.

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, as DEP's published formula applies it, 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 as well as 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. A cap of two percent of net income, not six percent of gross wet slip receipts.

Michigan. The Great Lakes Submerged Lands rules provide for marina leases with an advance annual rental fee (Mich. Admin. Code R 322.1004). They state a floor, not a rate per square foot: R 322.1007(4) sets the consideration for a marina lease of unpatented bottomland at "not less than 5% of the typical gross dockage and mooring rent in the area". 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 permit authorizes impacts to wetland, seagrass or another aquatic resource, the Corps may require compensatory mitigation, and the district engineer decides how much, considering mitigation bank credits and in-lieu fee program credits first (33 CFR 332.3). Published in-lieu fee schedules give you a real order of magnitude. North Carolina's Division of Mitigation Services statewide standard 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. On a Corps permit the number of credits is decided by the district engineer, not read off a rate sheet. Under 33 CFR 332.3(f) the amount must be, to the extent practicable, enough to replace the aquatic resource functions lost. A functional or condition assessment method or other suitable metric should be used where one is available and practicable; where none is used, "a minimum one-to-one acreage or linear foot compensation ratio must be used". North Carolina's program then bills for the quantity specified in the certifications, authorizations or permits. 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?

Three SBA rules bear on a marina: how the property is classified, whether the business is eligible at all, and how much one loan can carry. The governing document is SOP 50 10 8.1, in effect since 1 October 2026, when it replaced SOP 50 10 8 of 1 June 2025. Its contribution percentages are floors: a lender or Certified Development Company (CDC) applies its own credit analysis, so ask yours.

Marinas are on SBA's 504 list of Limited or Special Purpose Properties

Marinas are one of the 25 examples in the list of Limited or Special Purpose Properties in the 504 section of SOP 50 10 8.1 (Section C, Chapter 1, Paragraph E, Borrower's Contribution). It is a list of examples: "This list is not intended to be all-inclusive and SBA may determine that other properties meet the Limited or Special Purpose Property definition." The CDC "must address whether the Project Property is Limited or Special Purpose in their credit memorandum and include an explanation of their conclusion", so ask yours how it will treat your site. Two consequences follow on a 504 loan.

504 borrower contribution rises. Under SOP 50 10 8.1 a 504 borrower contributes at least 10 percent of the Project cost, and at least 15 percent if it is a New Business or has a Limited or Special Purpose Property. Where a Project finances both, "the Applicant must contribute at least 20% of the Project cost". At 20 percent the debenture finances no more than 30 percent of the Project, and "the Third Party Loan must total at least 50% of the Project costs" where the borrower has operated for 2 years or less or the Project is for a limited or single purpose asset. Appendix 3 defines a New Business: "A business that has been in operation for 2 years or less at the time the loan is approved." A first-time operator's marina that has not opened is one, so plan on 20 percent. Our SBA 504 loan requirements guide sets out the structure.

Buying does not always avoid that tier. A business older than 2 years "may be considered a New Business if it is a change of ownership that will result in new, unproven ownership/management and increased debt unrelated to business operations", and "the CDC must review the management and level of debt in order to decide whether an additional Borrower’s contribution of 5% is necessary". The contribution need not all be cash: equity in land you already own may be counted if the land is part of the Project.

The appraisal changes. The 504 commercial real estate appraisal rules in SOP 50 10 8.1 say: "When the collateral is a Special Purpose Property, the appraiser must be experienced in the particular industry." 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 intangible assets. The same rules add: "The CDC may not use an appraisal prepared for the applicant." Do not commission your own expecting it to be used. You are not being valued on the dirt.

The eligibility test a marina has to pass first

This is the most important paragraph on this page. SOP 50 10 8.1 states, in the passive business rules (Section A, Chapter 1, Paragraph E), which cover 7(a) and 504 loans: "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." If the applicant is a Start-Up Business, its projections must show the same share.

A marina whose revenue is predominantly annual and seasonal slip leases does not obviously clear that test. The test is on the whole business's revenue, and the SOP does not say how fuel, repair, storage or retail sales are counted. Take your revenue split 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 for any one Standard 7(a) loan is $5,000,000, and a Standard 7(a) loan to a start-up, which for 7(a) equity means a business in operation "for 1 year or less", requires an equity injection of at least 10 percent of total project costs. The 504 New Business clock is different: 2 years. The 504 gross debenture is limited to an outstanding $5,000,000 in aggregate per small business including affiliates, counting 504 loans only, with $5,500,000 per project for Eligible Energy Public Policy Projects and for small manufacturers. A marina is not a manufacturer, and the energy category turns on the project, not the industry.

Do the arithmetic against the table at the top of this page. A $9.6 million typical build cannot be done inside one $5 million Standard 7(a) loan. A 504 structure stacks a Third Party Lender loan with the debenture and your contribution, which is why we would look at 504 first for the real estate and dock construction, with the Third Party Loan carrying at least half of the Project costs. A 504 Project is long-term fixed assets, and working capital is not one, so ask your CDC which lines of our table it counts. 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?

Price it before you commit to a new build. A purchase can take over the existing Corps authorization and state submerged-lands lease, but not automatically. Under General Condition 4 of the Corps permit form (33 CFR Part 325, Appendix A), the seller sends the district office a copy of the permit signed by the new owner "to validate the transfer of this authorization". Florida's Rule 18-21.008 makes a sovereignty submerged lands lease assignable subject to Board approval and to the rules in effect at the time of assignment, "including those that require modification of existing legally authorized structures", so do not assume the footprint carries over unchanged. Michigan's R 322.1004 says an assignment "is not binding on the department unless approved in writing by the department". Ask both agencies before you sign. An existing basin's maintenance dredging may qualify for NWP 35, and you acquire an operating history, which a going concern appraisal and a historical debt service coverage calculation both rest on. A purchase with no expansion adds no new impacts to mitigate.

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 New Business with a Limited or Special Purpose Property contributes at least 20 percent of the 504 Project cost. If the whole $9.6 million typical build counted as the Project, that is $1.92 million, and working capital sits outside a 504 Project and still has to be funded.
• 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 fee is a recurring operating expense, and in Florida it can be set by gross wet slip receipts.

For context on what a full waterfront rebuild costs at municipal scale: St Pete Catalyst reported on 12 November 2025 a $148 million city construction budget for the revitalization of St. Petersburg's 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. On 24 April 2026 St Pete Rising reported the total cost at an estimated $165.45 million. That is not a per-slip construction cost, because the scope goes well beyond slips, but it is a useful sanity check against any figure that sounds too small.

Does an SBA loan secured by a marina need a Phase I?

Yes, when an operating or former marina is offered as security for the loan. SBA lists environmentally sensitive industries at Appendix 6 of SOP 50 10 8.1, NAICS Codes of Environmentally Sensitive Industries, and marinas are on it:

71393 MARINAS

The entry carries no condition. The one printed below it, for RV parks, applies only "if fuel tanks are present or if vehicle repairs or maintenance is performed onsite"; a Property used as a marina matches with or without a fuel dock or a repair yard.

The match follows the real estate, not the business plan. On 7(a) and 504 loans SBA requires an Environmental Investigation of "all commercial Property upon which a security interest such as a mortgage, deed of trust, or leasehold deed of trust is offered as security for a loan or debenture", the lender compares the NAICS codes for "the Property’s current and known prior uses" with Appendix 6, and on a match the investigation "must begin with a Phase I, regardless of the amount of the loan". An operating marina you buy, one you already own and pledge, or a site known to have been a marina is therefore caught once it is offered as security, a leasehold included.

A new build on a site that has never been a marina is less clear: the step is worded for current and known prior uses and we found nothing in it about a planned use, so ask your lender or CDC how it will code the site. If you will sell fuel, a footnote to Appendix 6 says a Phase I "should always be obtained if the business sells, supplies or dispenses fuel, gasoline, heating oil", whatever the code. Our SBA environmental requirements guide sets out every step.

Appendix 6 is an environmental list, not an eligibility list: a match adds a report to the timeline and a cost to the diligence budget. You can also check your equity position with our free SBA equity requirement calculator.

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?

Do not count on it. 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 authorizes 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 can be the larger number.

Does SBA lend on marinas?

A marina can be eligible for a 7(a) or 504 loan. Under SOP 50 10 8.1, marinas are eligible if more than 50 percent of the business's prior year revenue is derived from transients who stay for 30 days or less at a time and the business complies with zoning and other legal requirements. Raise that test with your lender before applying. Individual lenders make their own credit decisions.

How much equity will an SBA 504 lender require?

For a 504 loan, SOP 50 10 8.1 sets a minimum contribution of 10 percent of the Project cost, 15 percent for a New Business (operating 2 years or less when the loan is approved) or a Limited or Special Purpose Property, and 20 percent for both. Its 504 section lists marinas as an example, so a first-time operator building a new marina should plan on 20 percent.

What does compensatory mitigation cost?

It depends on the credit type and the state. North Carolina's Division of Mitigation Services publishes statewide standard 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. On a Corps permit the number of credits is decided by the district engineer and written into the permit, so ask your Corps district what they would expect.

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

It can be, and not only on the purchase price. A buyer can take over an existing marina's Corps permit and submerged-lands lease, though not automatically: the permit transfer has to be validated, and Florida and Michigan make a lease assignment subject to state approval. An existing marina also has an operating history, which a going concern appraisal and a historical debt service coverage calculation both rest on.

How long does the whole approval process take?

Where a nationwide permit applies, General Condition 32 permits work 45 calendar days after receipt of a complete pre-construction notification with no written response. If you had to flag listed species, critical habitat or historic properties, you wait for the Corps' written notification; the Section 106 process has no mandatory timeline. An individual permit's 60-day decision rule under 33 CFR 325.2(d) has six exceptions and counts from a complete application.

What a lender will ask you for

Before you take a marina project to a bank, a Certified Development Company or an SBA lender, have these ready.

• Your Corps of Engineers authorization 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 shows what share of the whole business's revenue comes from transients who stay 30 days or less, with annual and seasonal slip leases shown separately, because SBA eligibility turns on that share.
• Room in your budget and timeline for the appraisal, not the appraisal itself: under SOP 50 10 8.1 neither a CDC nor a 7(a) lender may use an appraisal prepared for the applicant.
• 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 contribution at the 15 or 20 percent minimum for a 504 Project with a Limited or Special Purpose Property.

We build exactly this package. If you want the permit pathway, the state lease modeling 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 supported 500+ founders across 30+ countries, our clients have raised $500M+, and we have been consulting since 2019. Avvale Ltd was incorporated in April 2023, company no. 14805382. 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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