Front Street Shipyard on the Belfast, Maine, waterfront has purchased its neighbor, Belfast Boatyard. With the sale finalized, the owners of Front Street Shipyard will immediately welcome the employees and customers of Belfast Boatyard while maintaining existing operations. The addition of Belfast Boatyard ads 500 feet of deep-water frontage, 22 slips, 20 moorings and harbor floats. This expansion will increase the yard’s service and storage capabilities for existing and future customers.
“We purchased Belfast Boatyard as part of a strategic growth plan,” says Front Street Shipyard’s president, JB Turner. “Our initial goal was to create a yard equipped to service most any yacht that visits northern New England. We’ve reached that goal.”
The Belfast Boatyard property will eventually house Front Street Shipyard’s business office and possibly crew accommodations. Front Street now has 72,555 square feet of space for yacht storage and 10,320 square feet of shop space on a six-acre property with 1,500 feet of waterfront. There are five storage buildings and an additional 6.5 acres of off-site storage. Front Street Shipyard currently employs 82 people, and the management team hopes to grow its workforce with the additional work facilitated through the purchase of Belfast Boatyard.
Front Street Shipyard has grown into the Northeast’s largest shipyard north of Newport, Rhode Island. The yard recently erected a sixth building on the waterfront that includes facilities for transient boaters and additional boat storage. Front Street Shipyard also welcomed Carbon Ocean Yachts of Bristol, Rhode Island, into its facility earlier this year, and began production of Southport Boats in conjunction with Kenway Corporation of Augusta, Maine, beginning in 2011.