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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CarlZog" data-source="post: 1991602" data-attributes="member: 11716">38. Silver Palms Marina ComplexBuilt four years ago on the site of the old shutdown Navy yard in the southern end of the city's harbor, Silver Palms is a large marina complex that includes 160 boat slips, two restaurants, shops and condominiums. It was built and is owned by the Hubbard Development Corp., which fought bitterly against a number of local groups to have the facility built (Navy veterans wanted a museum there; environmentalists and neighborhood groups were arguing for fewer slips, less commercial space and restoration of wetlands surrounding the property.) As a result, the corporation is still hated by many. Kat Jacobs, 33, is the marketing manager for Silver Palms, and the public face of the marina and the corporation. Always meticulously dressed, she'll pop up anywhere there's an issue affecting the complex's business. Effusively upbeat and perky, she can also be ruthless when business is at stake. Three long, T-shaped docks accommodate yachts up to 130-feet in length. About two-thirds of the slips are occupied with locally owned boats whose owners keep the boats here year-round. The remaining slips are rented on short-term basis to cruising yachts that come into the city for the weekends. More large mega-yachts have been showing up for visits the last couple years. Very secretive, these yachts are crewed by professionals and the owners, or their guests, will often fly in for short visits instead of actually travelling with the yacht. Of the year-round rentals, about 25 are occupied by folks who live aboard. Some of the liveaboards are working professionals who take the ferry from here to downtown every day; a couple are old retirees, and the rest are seeminlgy destitute eccentrics whose dissheveled boats are barely staying afloat, and don't appear to have left the dock in years. The company would love to kick them all out, but maintaining a certain amount of affordable liveaboard space was part of a deal with the city to build the place. Among the liveaboards is Ernie, who lives on a beat-up houseboat patched with plywood and adorned with plastic potted plants on the deck. Ernie is in his late-40s but looks a lot older. He hangs out at Burt’s (see below) nearly every day, prompting jokes from the other locals. (“Just like Sesame Street, you can’t separate Ernie and Burt.”) Ernie claims to have worked in military intelligence and will entertain anyone who will listen with endless stories about how he planned the first Gulf War. At the end of the center dock is a fueling station for boats and pumpout station (to empty the boats' onboard sewage tanks). At the base of the north dock is "Durty Burt's", a tropically themed outdoor bar and grill. On good-weather weekends, it attracts a raucuous crowd of 20-somethings -- many of whom arrive by water on overpowered speedboats. Bert's also does a busy happy hour. The rest of the time, you're likely to find just a few people, although the corner of the bar is where the regulars -- a group of the liveaboards -- hang out. They seem to almost always be there. There is no real "Burt"; like everything here, the name was manufactured by the corporation to evoke a highly crafted atmosphere. Rubin is the head bartender. He's a fairly large, middle-aged Jamaican and was primarily hired for his accent, which the company figured would lend credence to the tropical theme. He tolerates idiots and drunks with a smile, but won't put up with bar fights. He's been known to personally wrestle belligerents out of the place. At the head of the central dock is a building consisting of several storefronts on the ground level and a fancy restaurant on the second floor with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the marina. The shops include "Coastal Marine", a small marine supply store selling basic boat and fishing gear, ice and bait; "Java Bakery", a coffee and snack shop with an array of bagels, muffins, etc.; and "Ella's Boutique", an upscale gift shop owned by Ella Goldstein, who lives in one of the condos on the property. Upstairs is "Laroche", an upscale restaurant that bills itself as “an eclectic Euro-American bistro”. The food is overpriced and not particularly good, but people come for the view. It’s “the” place to get engaged, or take your out-of-town guests. The dining room overlooks the marina, the harbor, and the downtown city lights on the other side. At the base of the third dock, and stretching back behind Laroche and Burt’s, is a condo complex. Most of the complex is organized into three-story-tall buildings of four to six units, arranged in townhouse style. A larger 8-story building sits in the center of the complex. The units fetch $250,000 and up. A maze of sidewalks and green spaces wind among the 200 units, connecting them to the docks and to the massive parking lots on the landward side of the complex. It’s mostly occupied by yuppies and older professionals working downtown. Building and selling this aspect of the development was the real cash cow for the Hubbard Corp.</blockquote>

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