Boston Whaler Plant Expansion

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jimh
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Boston Whaler Plant Expansion

Postby jimh » Fri Aug 04, 2017 8:32 am

PRESS RELEASE

Boston Whaler announces major expansion to its Edgewater, Florida headquarters

July 10, 2017

EDGEWATER, Fla. — Boston Whaler has just confirmed a major land acquisition, resulting in the expansion of its Edgewater, Florida headquarters by approximately 60 acres on the facility’s northern border. The addition reflects more than two years of hard work by a passionate team, and represents an important next phase in Whaler’s expansion opportunities.

“We are pleased to announce that Boston Whaler has officially closed on approximately 60 additional acres of land,” said Boston Whaler President Nick Stickler. “The opportunities for growth in terms of manufacturing, job creation, and product innovation are now exponentially greater.”

The addition of land comes after months of meetings with the city and community leaders, including the owners and residents of the community just north of the new acreage, Hacienda Del Rio. On June 5, the City of Edgewater Council approved annexing the current Boston Whaler site into the City of Edgewater. The site plan joined Whaler’s current 45 acres with the newly added land and rezoned the entire area as MUPUD (mixed-use planned unit development).

“As Boston Whaler celebrated the expansion of its manufacturing facility by nearly 60,000 square feet back in early 2015, we recognized that our growth was already beginning to exceed our strategic plans,” explained Stickler. “This remarkable growth prompted us to enter a new phase of expansion, examining how and where we might increase our property to address demand for our products and to continue along a positive trajectory.”

“The final design of the new site fits the community, the City of Edgewater, and Boston Whaler’s expansion strategy,” said Rebecca Crews, VP of operations. “In addition to an outstanding site plan, Boston Whaler has partnered with the city in the development of the land.”

Boston Whaler is now in the process of recording and subdividing the new land into four lots. Lot 1 will contain Whaler’s current site, which currently houses all manufacturing and business operations, as well as a portion of the new land. Build-out on Lot 1 is expected to be completed by 2020.

Lots 2 and 3, located on US1 frontage, are expected to be sold at a future date to the business(es) that best complement the Whaler development. The final area, Lot 4, encompasses a City of Edgewater recreation area, a retention pond, and a tree preservation area. These serve double-duty as both a generous buffer for residents of the Hacienda Del Rio community, and as a requirement for Whaler expansion. Boston Whaler plans to sell Lot 4 to the city on or before August 1, 2017.

“This final action of acquisition was the result of more than two years of discussions and due diligence,” said Edgewater City Manager Tracey T. Barlow. “Based on the long-term benefits that are gleaned for the entire community in regards to continued good paying jobs staying here as well as now having the opportunity to expand the facility, creating many more jobs, this is probably one of the most important initiatives that the City Council has pursued since the addition of sewer and paved streets in the Florida Shores subdivision.”

“We’re grateful to our community for supporting this expansion,” said Stickler. “We look forward to contributing back to our community and our local economy for generations to come.”

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jimh
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Re: Boston Whaler Plant Expansion

Postby jimh » Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:10 am

Here is a GOOGLE EARTH view of the Boston Whaler plant and the adjoining property to the north:

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I spoke with Chuck Bennett recently, and he mentioned that one of the problems at present is lack of parking space for employees. Boston Whaler has expanded and added so many new employees that they've just run out of parking space. As the planned-use indicated in the press release shows, much of the newly acquired land will be converted to a parking lot. The remainder of the newly-acquired 60-acres will be subdivided into three parcels and sold off, with the major parcel being sold to the city of Edgewater for recreational use.

Chuck also mentioned that Customer Support has moved out of the original main office building and is operating from temporary offices across the street because office space has become very tight.

If you use the most recent GOOGLE EARTH image and zoom in, you can see there are over 40 new boats sitting on the production lot in shrink wrap awaiting shipment. If you figure an average Boston Whaler boat costs about $50,000 these days, that is $2-million in new boat inventory sitting on the lot awaiting shipping. That should give you an idea of the production capacity at the greatly expanded Edgewater plant these days.

jimh
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Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:25 pm
Location: Michigan, Lower Peninsula
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Re: Boston Whaler Plant Expansion

Postby jimh » Thu Jan 18, 2018 4:51 pm

A ground-breaking ribbon-cutting ceremony took place this week to mark the start of work on the construction of new facilities for Boston Whaler on the recently acquired northern property adjoining the existing plant.

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With the announced sale by Brunswick of SEARAY, I think BOSTON WHALER is now clearly the top dog in the Brunswick boat line. Sales must be very good. Employment at Boston Whaler has increased significantly in the past few years. The number of employees has more than doubled, with the workforce now about 900 strong.

Ridge Runner
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Re: Boston Whaler Plant Expansion

Postby Ridge Runner » Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:28 am

A strong indicator of Boston Whaler's health and growth is that they currently have 68 open full-time positions they are advertising for in Edgewater, Florida. Fifty-nine of the positions are in manufacturing.
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