STOCKTON - After years of planning and a drastic reduction of the project's size, construction of a downtown marina and promenade will start this year, and the $26.5 million project will be finished in 2009, city officials said Tuesday.
The City Council voted 7-0 Tuesday to request proposals from developers to build a marina on the Stockton Deep Water Channel and a promenade on the waterway's north and south banks.
"This has all been part of the downtown vision," Councilman Steve Bestolarides said.
The action cheered boaters, who have sought a marina for more than a decade, talking with Stockton officials about it at least since 1995. Ed Stetson, commodore of the Marina West Yacht Club, said boaters have become impatient waiting for it to be built.
"It's just taken so long," he said.
Stetson said the marina will be an asset to downtown. Like city officials and downtown business leaders, Stetson said boaters who dock downtown will spend money at shops and restaurants, enlivening the city core.
For City Hall, Tuesday's development was evidence the marina, a significant part of the council's agenda last year, has not been forgotten.
"We really are doing stuff, folks," City Manager Gordon Palmer said.
Stockton officials had once hoped the marina could open as early as last year. It was delayed as officials redesigned the project, finding the cost of the original proposal to dock almost 200 boats was almost double the one-time estimate of about $20 million. The wait for state and federal approvals further stalled it, Redevelopment Agency Director Steve Pinkerton said.
The revised plan includes 66 covered slips and guest docks with room for about 80 boats. The marina is expected to about break even, netting about $800,000 in annual revenue, about enough to pay the debt incurred building it, officials said.
Issues such as permitting and state funding - the project relies in part on $13.3 million in low-interest state loans - have been resolved, Pinkerton said. He said construction on the marina likely will begin in summer and continue into 2009. He said the marina will hopefully open by July that year.
The renovation of Morelli Park at the west end of the planned marina already has begun. The deteriorated boat launch there was closed in March. An expanded launch and a dry-dock facility - a $2.5 million boat garage included in the marina's estimated cost - are to be built there, as is a bridge across Mormon Slough, connecting the park to the promenade.
The City Council voted 7-0 Tuesday to request proposals from developers to build a marina on the Stockton Deep Water Channel and a promenade on the waterway's north and south banks.
"This has all been part of the downtown vision," Councilman Steve Bestolarides said.
The action cheered boaters, who have sought a marina for more than a decade, talking with Stockton officials about it at least since 1995. Ed Stetson, commodore of the Marina West Yacht Club, said boaters have become impatient waiting for it to be built.
"It's just taken so long," he said.
Stetson said the marina will be an asset to downtown. Like city officials and downtown business leaders, Stetson said boaters who dock downtown will spend money at shops and restaurants, enlivening the city core.
For City Hall, Tuesday's development was evidence the marina, a significant part of the council's agenda last year, has not been forgotten.
"We really are doing stuff, folks," City Manager Gordon Palmer said.
Stockton officials had once hoped the marina could open as early as last year. It was delayed as officials redesigned the project, finding the cost of the original proposal to dock almost 200 boats was almost double the one-time estimate of about $20 million. The wait for state and federal approvals further stalled it, Redevelopment Agency Director Steve Pinkerton said.
The revised plan includes 66 covered slips and guest docks with room for about 80 boats. The marina is expected to about break even, netting about $800,000 in annual revenue, about enough to pay the debt incurred building it, officials said.
Issues such as permitting and state funding - the project relies in part on $13.3 million in low-interest state loans - have been resolved, Pinkerton said. He said construction on the marina likely will begin in summer and continue into 2009. He said the marina will hopefully open by July that year.
The renovation of Morelli Park at the west end of the planned marina already has begun. The deteriorated boat launch there was closed in March. An expanded launch and a dry-dock facility - a $2.5 million boat garage included in the marina's estimated cost - are to be built there, as is a bridge across Mormon Slough, connecting the park to the promenade.