Construction has started on Navy Pier’s marina eight years after plans for its creation were put forth.
Navy Pier Marina is still on track to open in time for 2025’s boating season, according to ownership. Construction started in early November and will continue throughout the winter. J.F. Brennan, based in Ottawa, Illinois, is the general contractor.
The 150-vessel marina is being built on the pier’s north side. The marina will offer lunch and dinner hourly tie-ups for those looking to have a meal or see attractions at Navy Pier, along with options to moor up for single and multiple-night stays. Marina amenities will include power and water hookups, Wi-Fi and waste pump-out service.
Additional amenities will be housed in a two-story building made from single-use shipping containers, according to NPM Venture LLC, the group operating Navy Pier Marina. The building will include the marina office, ship’s store, restrooms, showers and boater’s lounge, in addition to a bicycle repair station.
The marina is estimated to cost about $16 million — double the initial cost because of delays and higher interest rates in today’s market. The project is a private investment led by real estate executive Randy Podolsky, an avid sailor and a volunteer with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, who formed NPM Venture.
Podolsky has been working on making the marina a reality since 2016. In 2017, he signed a long-term deal with Navy Pier’s governing board to establish the marina — but work on the project was stymied under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration, which refused to give the marina a permit. It cited security concerns involving the Jardine Water Filtration Plant, which sits across from Navy Pier on the north.
“The years of hard work, perseverance and dedication to this project have come to fruition with this major milestone,” Podolsky said in a news release. “Navy Pier Marina will offer limited availability to seasonal commercial vessels including fishing, sailing, dive and social charters, boat clubs, cruises, dealers and other boat-share operations, in addition to prolific transient access via our easy-to-use online reservation system.”
Podolsky previously said the marina will make Navy Pier a respite for “Loopers” — boaters who follow the long “Great Loop” journey from inland waterways to the Gulf Coast, Eastern Seaboard and Great Lakes.
The project has the endorsement of Marilynn Gardner, Navy Pier’s president and CEO.
“This is a dream years in the making,” Gardner said in a news release. “Opening up boater access to Chicago’s front porch is not only a tremendous amenity for the local and regional boating community, but also a dynamic opportunity for the 70-plus businesses that call Navy Pier home.”
The city agreed to let the project proceed a year ago. After state and federal agencies signed off on the project, Podolsky’s NPM Venture formally withdrew lawsuits in federal and Cook County courts over the permit denial by the city’s Transportation Department.