Naples City Dock reconstruction nears completion; visits to be allowed in March

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After a monthslong rebuild, the Naples City Dock is expected to reopen slips to charter captains Jan. 1.

The public should be able to again visit one of the city’s most popular spots by March.

Hurricane Irma had threatened to derail the $6.5 million rebuild. The September storm slammed parts of Naples Bay, but it spared the site where crews have been constructing a new dock since May.

Hurricane Irma:Timeline told in stories, photos, videos before, during and after the big storm hit

Delays in getting parts to build a floating fuel dock moved the project two weeks behind its planned mid-December reopening, Harbormaster Roger Jacobsen said. There also is a delay in getting an electric generator installed by FPL, Jacobsen said. The utility company has been held up by work after Irma, he said. 

“The good thing is I got no damage out of it,” he said.

The new structure will include an ipe wood dock, 84 leasable slips, two bathrooms and a gazebo.

The City Council agreed to rebuild the dock after a consultant said its wooden beams were failing and the whole thing needed replacement.

Annual repairs to the aging dock, which hadn’t been rebuilt since 1983, cost more than $60,000, Jacobsen said.

Jacobsen first will open the new dock to its tenants, 14 charter captains with fishing, sailing and sightseeing ventures that rely on dock visitors for as much as 25 percent of their business.

During the rebuild, those captains have used Naples Landing or private boat launches to operate their businesses.

For other boaters who use the dock as a gas station, fuel pumps and the dock’s harbor shop, they can access the dock beginning Jan. 8, Jacobsen said.

The dock will reopen as a visitor and tourist site by March.

“I can’t wait anymore,” Jacobsen said. “I just want it open and operating.”

More:Naples City Dock closure forces captains to relocate

Previously:City Dock will be open for Great Dock Canoe Race despite upcoming rebuild

The council is paying for the dock rebuild through a 20-year loan from the city’s pool of investments and other cash. To make annual $325,000 payments, officials will draw from the dock’s fuel and rent revenue.

Jacobsen operates the dock’s $1.6 million budget separate from the city’s $36 million general fund.

However, taxpayers could be on the hook for interest payments if the council decides the dock can’t afford them.

Those annual interest payments, capped at 2.5 percent, aren’t expected to exceed $146,000.

More than half of Naples residents, or roughly 56 percent, visit or use the City Dock, a 2015 survey found.