Weatherford Capital, the private-equity firm run by former Florida House of Representatives member Will Weatherford, has made a $41 million investment in Dallas-based Safe Harbor Marinas.
“We believe marinas are a unique and highly fragmented asset class offering significant upside from scale and institutionalization,” Weatherford said in a statement. “We identified Safe Harbor as the market leader with a strong management team capable of driving operational improvements across its portfolio while executing on its acquisition pipeline.”
The $41 million is the latest in a list of recent investments from Weatherford to Safe Harbor and it will be used to fund additional growth of the company. The first investment was made in January 2017, with $40 million. In March 2018, Weatherford invested $10 million into Safe Harbor.
Weatherford said that by the end of the year, his business will have invested in five companies. Three of them have already been announced: the Safe Harbor deal, more than $100 million in PayIt and $51 million into OpenGov.
“While only one of the five companies is headquartered in the state, four of the five companies have a strategic focus on Florida,” he said.
As the firm looks toward 2020, it plans to look at middle-market companies and enterprise value of more than $50 million with a focus on growth equity, buyouts, recapitalizations, venture and real estate opportunities.
