Finding a site for a significant number of new boat slips is a challenge even in a state with thousands of miles of waterways. In Clay County, there’s a site with dock potential aplenty.
Private business Clay County Port Development and its industrial Reynolds Park sit on the St. Johns River, 45 miles from the ocean at a World War II-era former U.S. Naval Air Station. Post-war, the Navy used it for a mothball fleet. After the Navy decommissioned the site, a Reynolds aluminum heir, Louis Reynolds, bought it. It has four miles of piers, 6,000 feet of bulkhead on the 1.5-mile riverfront, 1,700 acres, 800,000 square feet of industrial space and an airfield with a 5,000-foot runway. In two marinas it has about 130 customers on wet slips and a few dozen in a mooring field and upward of another 1,000 boats stored on stands on land. Interestingly, it has government approval for another 2,000 slips, plus dry storage.
The site has issues: That long haul to the ocean, for one. Plus, there’s contamination from the military use. Docks are built at a height for Navy ships, not recreational boats. The development — it’s owned by Reynolds’ heirs — is working on getting government remediation.
In a few years, the development will soar in access. The under-construction First Coast Expressway will have two interchanges connecting the business development with I-10 to the northwest and I-95 across the St. Johns to the east. “It’s a game-changer here,” says Ted McGowan, executive director.