When new ownership took over Bradford Marine in 2019, the Fort Lauderdale-based facility was a long-beloved boatyard. Approaching their fifth year of ownership, father-son duo John and Michael Kelly are keeping the promise made on day one. Not only have they preserved the working waterfront, but also have created a welcoming marina with outdoor events for customers, especially crew.
Currently, Bradford Marine has 240 team members across 38 acres. That acreage greatly expanded thanks to the acquisition of Billfish Marina in 2020 and the acquisition of Roscioli Yachting Center in 2023. Conveniently, Roscioli was adjacent, so it was a matter of removing a fence to seamlessly unite the properties. Billfish Marina presented a different challenge, though, being across a canal. “We needed a way to bring our team members back and forth instead of going over the bridge,” Michael Kelly explains, referring to State Road 84. With necessity being the mother of invention, the company built a shuttle boat, aptly 84 Express. Now, it regularly transports team members as well as captains and crew between the re-named Bradford East and Bradford Central properties.
This practical strategy falls in line with what the Kellys said they planned to do right from the start. “Our big focus is the customer experience,” Kelly says. Experienced boaters themselves, they wanted to re-create “that personalized service that we really enjoyed when we were going into marinas.” Clearly, it’s working, since longtime slip holders like the classic 82-foot (25-meter) Black Knight and 121-foot (37-meter) Blackhawk still dock there. It’s attracted new customers, too, who take advantage of 19,000 linear feet (5,791 meters) of in-water dockage. “It keeps us busy,” Kelly laughs.
Some of those new customers can take advantage of the working waterfront as well. Four paint sheds are on site, and further painting can go on in slips because every yacht gets tented. Larger yachts than ever before can call on Bradford Marine for service, too. The team removed the roofs from covered slips on the original property. “Previously 130-foot/40-meter boats were really the cap,” Kelly says, but now 164-footers (50-meters) can come for work. In fact, one nearly that LOA was on site during our visit this summer, receiving a new hardtop.
Arguably one of the most dramatic transformations at Bradford Marine is the outdoor lounge space (top and below). As much as removing the roofs over the slips changed the look and feel of the place, the lounge has had an equally big, if not bigger, impact. Kelly says they chose the part of the property with the best views purposely to let everyone enjoy it. “What we were envisioning is, ‘What would we love to have as a waterfront backyard, where we would go hang out and enjoy?’ We took that as the starting point,” he explains.
The palm-tree-fringed space doesn’t just have great views. The outdoor lounge has a stage for a DJ, lounge seating, a huge bar with a grill and televisions, and a firepit. String lights lend a terrific ambience at night. (“We spent a little too much time at Restoration Hardware,” Kelly laughs.) There’s plenty of room for superyacht crew to mix and mingle during monthly hosted happy hours, for example. Bradford Marine additionally uses the outdoor lounge for private events with strategic partners. One such event was with an exotic car company. Simply put, scant marinas stateside have nice leisure areas for crew—and even fewer in Europe come anywhere close.
Notably, the team isn’t done with the transformations yet. The company is continuing to expand haul-out space, for instance, for production boats and superyachts alike. Catamarans notably are among them. Further work will see even more dockage, including multiple 90- and 120-foot (27- and 37-meter) slips. Even without full paving complete, already there’s a much different vibe throughout the 38 acres. Customers are eager to see what the coming months and years will bring.
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Hank Carpenter
What a great article. The guys at Bradford Marine are the best of the best!!