The Village of Rocketts Landing is putting docks in the water -- but the economy isn't floating many boats.
The new community on the James River has leased just five of the 40 boat slips it began putting into the water yesterday to create a marina that will serve condominium dwellers and other private boaters.
Rents range from $3,600 to $5,400 for an annual lease, depending on the size of the slip, and $345 to $510 on a monthly basis.
Eventually, Rocketts will expand the floating dock to include 87 slips, but the project was slowed by a combination of a weak housing market and pending negotiations with the city over the next phase.
"We just wanted to get some slips into the water this year," said Richard D. Souter, vice president at WVS Companies, which is developing the Village of Rocketts Landing just east of Richmond Intermediate Terminal.
The company's contractor was lifting 40-foot sections of dock into the river at the terminal yesterday so that they can be floated down river to the marina site and bolted together. The workers are racing against the clock to avoid stirring up the river's sediment when migratory fish begin their spawning runs this month.
"We've finished a lot of the work that is deemed river-disturbing," Souter said yesterday.
The Virginia Marine Resources Commission approved a permit for the full, 87-slip marina in September. The first phase will account for $2 million of the project's eventual $4.3 million cost. The dock relies on an anchoring system that will allow it to rise and fall with the river's flow, which can be high and fast at the marina site.
The first phase is expected to be complete between mid-April and mid-May. Eventually, Rocketts wants to expand the marina to 133 slips.
Now, the problem is getting people who are willing and able to spend the money on a boat in tight times. "If this would have been two years ago, I think it would have leased up entirely," Souter said. "I think people are looking to save anything possible."
However, WVS hasn't offered the slips for lease to the public yet. Instead, it's waiting on Rocketts Landing residents, who have been given first choice. There aren't as many residents as the company would like. So far, 130 units are occupied in the community's first phase, which will include 250 condominiums and 41 town homes.
But Souter is confident that putting the dock in the river will draw people with boats who want to lease slips. It's as simple as supply and demand.
"At the end of the day, it's the only place in the city of Richmond where you can moor a boat," he said.
Then-Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder proposed building a 72-slip public marina at Intermediate Terminal next to Rocketts, but the city's permit application has not been approved by federal and state regulators. A spokeswoman for Mayor Dwight C. Jones said the new administration has not been briefed yet on the proposed project.
Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com.
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