South Florida's 1,486 new slips now underwrite waterfront product

The waterfront amenity has become a line item. AmDev counted the boat slips announced, approved or delivered across Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade in the current cycle and got 1,486, against a combined 100,200 registered recreational vessels in Miami-Dade and Broward. That is new capacity worth about 1.5 percent of the existing fleet in two counties, arriving into a market where dockage, not land, is the binding constraint.

Why it matters

Slip count now has its own revenue line, and it prices better than most of the residential product wrapped around it. Miami-Dade public marinas charge $23 to $40 per foot per month, while marinas built for superyachts run $60 to $100. Run that at 100 feet and one berth is $8,000 a month, $96,000 a year, with no build-out, no turnover cost and no tenant improvement allowance. Thirty slips at that rate is a rent roll, not an amenity, and it should be underwritten as one.

That changes the product decision and the pitch. Brokers selling new waterfront should stop saying “marina access” and start quoting assigned slip length, because length is the scarce unit. Roughly 90 of the 325 slips proposed at the old Seaquarium site would take vessels over 80 feet. Ken Griffin’s approved Terminal Island marina is nine slips total.

The numbers

This is an AmDev tally, not a published industry figure. PORT 32 Palm Beach Gardens brings 471 slips, 451 dry stack and 20 wet for vessels to 112 feet, opening in December 2026 on an $80 million redevelopment rated for 180 mph winds. The Virginia Key plan adds 325 wet slips plus 500 dry stack. Pier Sixty-Six in Fort Lauderdale delivered 164 slips taking vessels to 400 feet. La Maré in Bay Harbor Islands carries 17. Terminal Island, nine.

PORT 32’s $80 million across 471 slips works out to roughly $170,000 of capital per slip, most of it rack. That is the tell: 951 of our 1,486 slips are dry stack, so the volume is small boats and the margin is the handful of wet berths.

What’s next

Nobody publishes a South Florida slip inventory. The regional trade groups count jobs and economic impact, not berths, which is why this pipeline gets described and never counted. Watch the Virginia Key rezoning, still in county staff review, because 825 of the 1,486 depend on it. More Miami coverage.