Marina builder leaves international watermark
Bellingham Marine serving customers locally, worldwide

Text and photos by Chris Huber

Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes is one of the many marinas Bellingham Marine Industries has built locally. Others include the Port of Bellingham’s Squalicum and Blaine locations, La Conner, Port of Everett and Shilshole Marina in Seattle.

You’ve strolled along a marina many times, but ever wonder who builds them? The answer is Bellingham Marine Industries, a Bellingham-based company that started small, but now boasts full-scale manufacturing facilities in Washington, California, Pennsylvania, Florida, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Spain.
“We build around 350 projects a year, from multimillion dollar marinas to $20,000 docks for waterfront homes,” says Everett Babbitt, company president. The company, with 400 employees, specializes in the design, manufacture and construction of marinas and dry stack storage systems, and can take credit for the installation of more than 17 million square feet of dock systems worldwide. In the U.S. alone, the company has built more than 1,500 marinas.
Bellingham Marine was incorporated in 1928 as Bellingham Builders’ Supply, selling ready-mixed concrete and other building materials. In 1954 it was purchased by Gaasland Construction, and within a few years, obtained the manufacturing rights to the patented concrete Unifloat product. So in 1958, some 30 years after its inception, the company began focusing on building marinas, or concrete floating dock systems, a focus that continues to this day. With $81 million in sales for fiscal year 2006, it’s no exaggeration to say this company is doing well.
One of its first projects in the ’50s was the Port of Seattle’s Shilshole Marina, a 1,500-slip double berth marina. As demand increased over the next two decades, a manufacturing facility was established in California by 1977, which allowed the company to service markets from Alaska to Mexico.
Expansion was a buzzword at BMI for the 30 years that followed, resulting in a total of nine manufacturing plants to date. Eight of them build concrete floating docks, and one builds large metal buildings, where boats are stored on racks.
In 2003, Bellingham Marine Europe and Bellingham Marine Southeast Asia were established, both building major projects in their first year. In 2004, BMI established a licensee in the United Arab Emirates and in 2005, created Bellingham Marine Mexico.
Chances are you’ve seen these docks more than once. BMI was responsible for building most of the docks for the Port of Bellingham at Squalicum and Blaine. The company built marinas at Point Roberts, La Conner, Anacortes, Fidalgo Island and Port of Everett. Right now, Babbitt and his team are rebuilding the docks for Shilshole Marina in Seattle.
“In a tropical climate our marinas last 20-to-30 years, but in cooler climates like the Pacific Northwest, they can last close to 50 years,” he says.
Building a marina is nothing if not complicated. When approached by a client, BMI begins by determining what mixture of boats will use its floating docks, and what economic model best suits a particular project. “We go onto the site to determine how we’ll protect the marina from wave action and wind direction, and we need to establish the water depth to know what pile design is needed, to hold the dock in place,” Babbitt says.
Sometimes the marinas include land-side facilities such as restaurants and shops, while at other times they’re smaller projects like a 50-foot slip for a boat owner on a lake. In a well-protected location with smaller boat sizes, slips range in price from $15,000 to $40,000. In more exposed locations, or if very large boats are involved, slips can cost in excess of $100,000 each. “Twenty percent of our jobs constitute 80 percent of our business,” notes Babbitt. “And a lot of our business is repeat business, such as upgrades or modifications to existing docks.”
Bellingham Marine Industries has three essential products. Unifloat is its oldest saltwater moorage system, consisting of modules constructed of expanded polystyrene encased in concrete. Unideck was developed to meet the growing recreational boating market in inland waters, and is designed for freshwater applications; and Unistack addresses the need for dry storage of smaller recreational boats in large, warehouse-like structures.
These days, as boats become more sophisticated in the amenities they include, the floating docks that hold them require increasingly complex utility systems. “The marina business is not unlike the hotel business,” says Babbitt. “These days, we’re providing power, cable, wireless TV, telephone, fresh water, fire suppression systems and sewer pump outs – all of which run through the dock system. It takes a great deal of coordination to make all of that happen.”
The Bahia Mar Marina in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was one challenging project for BMI, with an average slip size of more than 75 feet and a requisition of over 14 megawatts of electrical service. Then there was the world’s only floating golf green in Coure d’Alene, Idaho, that weighs more than 4 million pounds and can be moved to adjust the distance between the shore and the floating green each day.
The company’s dock systems’ modular or component design and proven performance capabilities give it an edge over the competition, Babbitt insists. “The systems’ flexibility allows owners to optimize the space in the basin, the slip mix, and to capitalize on changes in the market in the future,” he says.
“Our Unifloat concrete dock system is the perfect choice for mega yachts and the larger vessels we’re seeing in the market. Its high load capacity and ability to distribute loads throughout the dock system provide the high level of stability and freeboard often required by these larger vessels. We also feature a unique internal utility routing method which accommodates a wide range of building code, environmental and accessibility requirements as well as handle the ever increasing demands for greater utility services.”
“One challenge that is facing the entire industry is the availability of appropriate marina sites and waterfront property in general,” says Babbitt. “Property uses with higher profitability, such as residential developments, are often displacing existing marinas. In addition, sites that are naturally well protected have been used up over time and only sites more exposed to wind and waves are commonly available.”
With its long history and worldwide manufacturing locations, plus BMI’s mobile manufacturing capabilities, the company bills itself as the most experienced and oldest marina company in the world.
“Yes, we have plenty of competitors, most of them regional and a few national and international,” Babbitt says. “But we’re the most thorough and offer the most expertise from a technical, historical and international standpoint.”

Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes is one of the many marinas Bellingham Marine Industries has built locally. Others include the Port of Bellingham’s Squalicum and Blaine locations, La Conner, Port of Everett and Shilshole Marina in Seattle.