As originally written by Siouxland.
With warmer weather ahead, many Siouxland residents will be wanting to go boating. Now, with new management taking over the Sioux City Marina, boaters will be able to use the docks again.
On Monday, city council members voted 4-1 to approve a property management agreement between the city and F3 Marina for marina management services at the Sioux City Marina. The agreement began Tuesday and ends on Jan. 31, 2028.
“I’m pretty excited about it,” Sioux City resident and boater Dan Norton said. “You know, going last year without having any boat access down there. This is going to be pretty good. I read good things about them, looked them up. I think it’ll be great having somebody new down there. The previous owners were kind of letting it go downhill a little bit and didn’t seem to care about as much, so pretty excited.”
Many boaters were impacted when the Sioux City Marina did not open last summer, including those in the boat repair business. Cimmarina Boats owner Russell Hodges says he hopes this new management will help bring back his business.
“Had a huge impact on us, on sales and service, boat people not using them and people just not buying because they didn’t really have an opportunity to use them, so that was huge,” Hodges said. “I just feel everybody is a little bit enlightened, just the fact that it is going to open, so it’s positive, it’s a positive move. So I just hope they do a great job, which I’m expecting they probably will.”
F3 Marina President John Matheson expressed how happy his team is to be managing the marina.
“We’re not trying to be the biggest out there,” Matheson said. “We’re trying to be the best, and every single marina that we take on, we want to be able to feel comfortable that we can serve a purpose there and move it forward. We don’t take something on that we feel that we’re not going to be able to meet expectations or see a pathway to improve it. In here, we could.”
Matt Salvatore, director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, says the main focus is on reviving the marina.
“For this first year, we want to just get people back in the marina, get them back to using their boats and having fun, enjoying the river,” he said. “So I would say inflationary increases this first year, and then we’ll just kind of see what the market dictates after that.”
Boaters said their main issue was the gas dock not consistently being open, but Salvatore says that won’t be a problem anymore.
“We’re going to have regular hours of operation, and we are also looking into having automated payment options so that even if somebody isn’t there, you’ll be able to access gas 24/7,” Salvatore said.
Matheson said managing a marina on a river is not an easy job, but F3 Marina will be prepared for any possible outcome.
“There’s a lot of challenges in running a marina on a river because of the fluctuating water levels, and the potential for things that have happened that could have happened in the Sioux City Marina over the years. By understanding those, anticipating them and being ready to deal with them, that will reduce the chances of those occurring in the future,” Matheson said.
The docking area could be open by Memorial Day.
