PHOTO COURTESY TOPSIDE MARINAS TopSide Marinas recently acquired two marinas on the Lake Michigan: Bay Marine of Sturgeon Bay, Wis., and Bay Marine of Chicago, Ill.. The previous owners, Matt and Mark Felhofer, will continue to own and operate Bay Marine Yacht Sales, which will lease showroom and office space at both locations.
With the acquisition, TopSide Marinas now owns and operates 10 marinas in six states. Bay Marine of Sturgeon Bay was established in 1965. It covers 16 acres with 100 wet slips that were renovated in 2022, 115,000 square feet of inside storage, a service shop and lounge.
Bay Marine of Chicago was built in 2016 in Waukegan, Ill., and is less than a mile from TopSide-owned Larsen Marine. Bay Marine of Chicago provides 40,000 square feet of inside storage and has 7,000 square feet of office space plus full service.
“With the acquisition of Bay Marine service storage and marina operations, TopSide Marinas will now be running two of the finest marinas and boatyards in the Great Lakes,” Ryan Skiles, regional vice president of operations at TopSide Marinas, said in a statement. “Bay Marine’s Waukegan facility is an outstanding service and storage facility with deep water access to the downtown Chicago harbors. Bay Marine of Sturgeon Bay Yacht Harbor facility was completely remodeled in 2022, which brought one of the Great Lake’s most historic marinas back to the prominence it had in the 1950s.”
He continued, “The acquisition of Bay Marine reinforces TopSide’s mission of fostering a high-quality environment where our members and guests can create lifelong memories while maintaining an enjoyable waterfront experience for the avid boating communities in Wisconsin and Illinois.”
