Dallas company backed by billionaire buys two marinas, offers $75,000 finder’s fee for more

Stephen Lehn and Jacob Boan grew up boating in Texas and Kansas, but never thought their love for water would lead them to start a company to acquire marinas in the United States

“I grew up near marinas, but I didn’t know there was a job behind them,” said Lehn, who turned this hobby into an investment business called TopSide Marinas. “I only saw it as a parking space for your boat. Now I have to pinch myself. “

The two founders met after Lehn Boan was recruiting for Suntex Marina Investors, another Dallas company with a network of salt and freshwater ports in the United States

The Friends and Partners launched a business plan for TopSide Marinas in late 2018 before it officially launched in January 2020 with the support of Dallas’ Miramar Equity Partners and TRT Holdings of billionaire Bob Rowling, who owns Omni Hotels & Resorts.

TopSide, which works out of a co-working space at The Star, made its first two acquisitions this year and selected locations that are popular with North Texas.

“We searched the whole country and ended up in our own backyard,” said Lehn.

The first was Beavers Bend Marina on Broken Bow Lake, Oklahoma, a popular vacation destination for residents of North Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. It served more than 200,000 visitors that summer.

Before the start of the season, TopSide made a number of improvements to the marina, including 20 new wet briefs for a total of 350 wet briefs. It also bought new rental boats and increased its fleet to 60.

Florida-based marina sales broker Simply Marinas brokered the deal, which lasted approximately nine months after TopSide first heard about it.

Galveston Yacht Basin, purchased by TopSide in August 2021

In August TopSide acquired its second marina, Galveston Yacht Basin, four months after contacting former owners Greg Pappas and Rocky Sullivan, the executive members of Galveston’s GYB Investors LLC. The marina is just minutes from the Gulf of Mexico and will serve the 7.2 million tourists who visit Galveston Island each year. It has 500 wet slides, 260 dry stack racks, fishing boat charters, fuel, and a retail and bait store.

Both marinas were already profitable, which means that TopSide’s job is to keep improving and upgrading the properties to keep visitors happy.

The company has “aggressive plans” for future acquisitions nationwide in the next six to 18 months. It hopes to acquire two to four or more in the next year, Lehn said.

“There’s no limit to how big our platform can get,” he said.

Finder’s Reward Program

To accelerate its growth, TopSide is offering a $ 75,000 finder fee for those who connect it to a marina that they ultimately buy, be it on a lake, river, or coast. This type of reward program isn’t typical of the industry, but TopSide wants to reward those who help them connect with like-minded families in the industry, Lehn said.

So far, many marinas have been submitted and TopSide is tracking several of them, Lehn said.

The first two acquisitions were not part of the Finders Reward program as the first was made possible by a brokerage firm and the second was found by Lehn and Boan.

“We look at marinas across the country every week, from the southwest to the Great Lakes to the lakes on the Atlantic coast,” he said.

The company was founded just before the COVID-19 pandemic, which devastated many businesses but ended up encouraging outdoor activities like boating. The National Marine Manufacturers Association reported that new boat sales rose an estimated 12% over the past year to more than 310,000, reaching levels not seen since the Great Recession in 2008.

“It’s up to us to make sure that we encourage these boaters and help keep things going,” said Lehn.

Safe Harbor Marinas, based in Dallas, describes itself as the world's largest owner and operator of marinas with 40,000 members in its network.

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