Amid record demand for boats and slip space, Beaufort-based Jarrett Bay Boatworks has sold its manufacturing, service and marina business and real estate to Southfield, Mich.-based Sun Communities.
The pricetag was $51 million, according to a company filing. A Jarrett Bay official confirmed the sale.
Sun Communities is a publicly traded real estate investment trust whose main business is leasing manufactured-housing properties. It also owns many recreational vehicle resorts and Dallas-based Safe Harbor Marinas, which operates 125 marinas in 24 states with space leased to about 45,000 boat owners.
Jarrett Bay Group sold lots at the Jarrett Bay Marine Industrial Park to Safe Harbor on Feb. 3 for a value of about $21 million, based on the tax stamps in a Carteret County deed. The number of acres transferred was not disclosed.
But the total transaction was much higher because Sun also bought Jarrett Bay’s boat building and service business. The Cartaret County business employs about 150.
Randy Ramsey is the founder and president of Jarrett Bay Boatworks, a manufacturer that celebrated its 35th anniversary last year. Among the best known marine industry executives in North Carolina, Ramsey has been chairman of the UNC System Board of Governors since 2019. He is a former member of the N.C. State University Board of Trustees.
According to the company’s website, the Jarrett Bay industrial park is a 175-acre facility that is “one of the most comprehensive one-stop service and supply facilities on the East Coast.”
Sun Communities listed its Jarrett Bay investment in a Feb. 21 earnings report. It has bought more than two dozen marinas since late 2020 and has more than twice as many as its next largest competitor, according to a March 4 company report. Safe Harbors also owns the Kings Point marina on Lake Norman near Charlotte and Outer Banks marina in Wanchese.
Sun Communities had revenue of $2.3 billion and net income of $380 million last year. Its stock market value is about $20.8 billion.