Construction has officially kicked off on the upcoming Navy Pier Marina located along the north side of the pier at roughly 848 E Grand Avenue. After almost a decade in development, the project cleared its final hurdles with the city earlier this year after being delayed by the previous mayor. We now have a potential opening date and additional rendering.
Site plan of Navy Pier Marina via Google Maps
Led by NPM Ventures LLC, the new marina will boast 6,400 linear feet of mooring space with in-slip pump out, electricity, and water services. Services at the marina will be available 24 hours a day during the yearly boating season, with no minimum boat size required although there will be a max length of 183 feet.
Rendering of Navy Pier Marina via NPM
Joining the docking spaces will be a small two-story structure made up of shipping containers, this will provide services like showers, a store, lounge, and restrooms, with a 24-hour on-site concierge service. Once completed, the marina will be one of the few in the city that is transient oriented, while also serving seasonal commercial vessels for fishing, diving, and charters.
Site plan of Navy Pier Marina via NPM
Construction on the facility started a few days ago with Wisconsin based J.F. Brennan serving as the general contractor. Originally set to cost around $9 million, the project now comes with a price tag of $16 million. With efforts ramping up, the developer hoped to open the first set of docks at the start of the next boating season in spring 2025.
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We waited 10 years for this? Not very impressive. Looks like a temporary afterthought.
Agreed!!
Frankly pathetic from the city in terms of delay and in terms of ambition.
“…a small two-story structure made up of shipping containers…”
Why made up of shipping containers?
Is it any better because it’s made up of shipping containers?
Or ?is it just a ridiculous fad
cheap
I don’t think it’s being “cheap” alone — as noted in my other comment, using shipping containers will likely allow them to pre=fabricate most of the structure offsite as there is very little room for a “staging area” on Grand Avenue without causing major disruption to cars and pedestrians (beyond what’s already required to build the pylons/piers). Possibly also bowing to the trend/fad, but it’s a trend for a reason beyond just seeming “cool”.
Is the Tribune Tower East Supertall project dead or is it still going to happen? All sites I can locate on line say construction will start Feb 2024 yet zero is going on.
There was a plan under Rahm’s administration to create a beach and other amenities. I hope they consider adding more features to the plan in the future. It’s unfortunate it took this long to come to fruition and costs nearly doubled. The marina is a fabulous idea.
Lol 16 million for some crappy docks and some shipping containers
They have to build solid piers in fairly deep water to construct this. And the shipping containers sound like a practical way to pre-fabricate the structure offsite without having to close a big section of Grand Avenue to foot and vehicle traffic (to stage construction on a temporary floating structure would also likely interfere with the work to build pylons/piers).
Point taken 🙂
The Water Department needs to give up land on the south side for the public and development. They can find an alternative to their parking lot and secure their facilities. That waterfront land is too precious to be a free parking lot for city staff and not to be used by the public.