Stuart Boat Show to Float in New Spot
By Lori Becker, The Palm Beach Post, Fla.
Jan. 12–For the second year in a row, Rick Allen is bringing his own docks to the Stuart Boat Show.
The 2006 three-day, in-water show opens Friday, debuting in a new — but still hurricane-weary — location and showing off some 500 vessels.
“We just keep moving forward,” said Allen, president of Miami Beach-based AllSports Productions, which has produced the Stuart show for 11 years for the Marine Industries Association of the Treasure Coast.
After 12 years at Northside Marina, the 32-year-old boat show has jumped across the railroad tracks to the west side of State Road 707.
It now spans three adjacent marinas on the St. Lucie River: Stuart Cay Marina, Allied Richard Bertram Marine Group and Stuart Harbor Marina.
Hurricane Wilma damaged some of the docks at the hosting marinas, so Allen is again using his quarter-mile of floating docks to create the water display. AllSports spent $250,000 to build the temporary docks for last year’s Stuart show, after Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne destroyed the docks at Northside.
Besides hurricanes, this year’s change in venue highlights what South Florida marine leaders say is one of their industry’s greatest challenges: the loss of commercial waterfront property to condominiums.
Northside sold in 2004 to Altman Development Corp., an apartment and condo developer in Boca Raton. The firm is building 198 luxury condos on the property and the 150-slip marina will become a private yacht club. A company executive said last summer that Altman plans to build a second 150-slip marina at the site that will be open to the public.
“The frenzy has gotten way out of control,” said George Field, president of the Treasure Coast marine association and a yacht broker with Allied Richard Bertram. “It used to be that marinas were worth more than condos, but that’s changed.”
Despite the reasons for the move, dealers said the roomier new location is a plus. The city will close a half-mile section of State Road 707 from the old Roosevelt drawbridge to Fern Street, with entrances at both sides of the show.
“We definitely love the new venue,” said Cal Gaston, owner of Seagate Marine Sales, which has dealerships in Stuart and Tequesta. “You can walk down one big aisle on the road, and all the boats are going to be side by side.
“They didn’t have enough room in years past. … All the dealers bought a lot more space this year because they had it available.”
Local dealers are looking to the Stuart show to bring sales more than in past years because of Hurricane Wilma, which delayed and dampened attendance for the show season’s opener in Fort Lauderdale, Field said.
“There’s a lot of pent-up energy up here,” he said.
With about 180 exhibitors, the show will feature about 500 boats, half displayed in water and half on trailers along S.R. 707, Allen said. Representing more than 80 brands, the boats will range from an 8-foot inflatable to a 73-foot yacht. The show will also include about 150 booths, with an assortment of boating accessories and apparel.
The Stuart show, a huge moneymaker for the region’s boating industry, has grown by more than 400 percent over the past decade, in terms of attendance and the number of exhibitors, Allen said. This weekend’s show is expected to draw more than 13,000 people.
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