Exploring the New Marina at Friday Harbour
By Lucas on Aug 06, 2015
How often do you get to stand at the bottom of a marina without being over your head in water? The very rare opportunity was offered up by the partners creating Friday Harbour Resort (Geranium Corporation, Pemberton Group, ConDrain Group and Optus Capital) because they just completed the new 53-acre on Lake Simcoe in Innisfil.
Before beginning the gradual process of filling the marina the team wanted to showcase their handy work. It might not seem like it, but a lot of work and planning goes into creating a clean, natural marina. Jim De Gasperis, President of ConDrain Group and Friday Harbour partner, Earl Rumm and Boaz Feiner of Geranium Corporation, and Jo-Anne Lane, principal with Beacon Environmental led the tour of the waterless marina.
Jim De Gasperis
“We started constructing the marina about three years ago...we moved probably around 170,000 truck loads from the basin here,” explained De Gasperis. Much of the earth was relocated to create elevations for the 18-hole golf course (50% complete, opening in 2017) that will also be part of the Friday Harbour community.
De Gasperis also pointed out that it took 37,000 concrete blocks to create the new 4.5 km of waterfront. Typically, steel plates would be used for the marina walls, but they tend to rust over time. Friday Harbour marina is built to last. The concrete walls have a 0% tolerance and it was very important to maintain this quality of craftsmanship because of the residential units that will be built on the islands in the middle of the marina.
Fish habitat
Friday Harbour has implemented an innovative approach to the stormwater management system. The marina will have the cleanest water possible at all times thanks to the stormwater management system that will pump water into a holding tank then to a sediment control stage, which is then pumped to the golf course pond and used for irrigation. By the time the water makes its way back to the marina, it has gone through many cleansing stages.
Over the next few weeks, the marina will be flooded slowly using a gravity system. De Gasperis explained that there are faster systems that involve pumping the water into the marina, but it would be more impactful on Lake Simcoe. This gravity system should take two to three weeks and it is the most natural way to allow Lake Simcoe to flow into the marina. When the flooding is complete, the water will be approximately two meters deep, with some areas like the mouth of the marina being deeper.
A deep basin for fish
Making the Friday Harbour marina as natural as possible was crucial, so there are around 30 fish habitats that have been created. “This was an existing marina. The marina was about four hectares (9.8 acres) in its previous life,” explained Lane. “We have increased the area, if you will, of fish habitat and really of Lake Simcoe by over three times of what it was. We’ve extended Lake Simcoe by about 10 hectares (24.7 acres). When you do that and the marina gets filled, the fish are going to come because it’s quiet water, it’s warm water, and they will automatically come and set up shop here. What we’ve done is created some areas where fish like to go.”
Jo-Anne Lane
There is a variety of fish habitats designed to accommodate the different kinds of fish that thrive in Lake Simcoe. Some of the habitats are simply deep basins, some are rock gardens, and some are woody entanglements where plantlife, logs, and branches have been placed. The quality of the water and fish habitats will be consistently monitored to ensure the ecosystem is flourishing.
Living at Friday Harbour
As we stood in the middle of the marina, Feiner oriented us using the site plan. “This is the main pier, we call this part of our event plaza,” he said as he pointed to the largest pier closest to the three cranes. “We’ll have events up there such as firework displays, holiday tree lighting, a farmers’ market, and more importantly, it’s a place where people can go and enjoy the waterfront.”
Boaz Feiner
The three cranes are constructing Phase 1, which features 240 residential units and 23,000 square feet of retail space at grade. Phase 1 is sold out, and Phase 2 and 3 are currently selling. This resort style community has seen over 430 sales so far, and they expect many more before the end of the year.
“Our market today is what we term ‘urbanites.’ Demographics go from mid-30s to retirees and everything in between. They do not want to own a large cottage or particularly a chalet and drive two to three hours,” said Rumm, who is spearheading sales. “We offer something completely different here. We’re so easily accessible with the GO Train and we’ll shuttle people back and forth if you don’t want to drive. The Barrie GO Train runs seven days a week and this is a market that’s been virtually untapped for years. We’ve been able to get a handle on it and our sales have just exploded. We expect to add another hundred sales by the end of the year, and we’ll just continue to keep going strong. It’s been fantastic. I don't think there’s another community like Friday Harbour in all of Canada.”
Boaz Feiner in front of Phase 1
The Boardwalk Condos and Harbour Flats range from 433 to 1,582 square feet with prices starting in the mid $200,000s, ranging up to the low $800,000s (these prices include a locker and parking space). There was also a collection of Marina and Island Towns recently released and these units range from 1,498 to 4,601 square feet with prices starting in the mid $800,000s (includes a private boat slip and garage).
Phase 1 is under construction
Friday Harbour by the numbers:
2,000 total resort residences
53-acre marina with 34 acres of water
2 meter deep marina
1,000 boat slips
170,000 truck loads of earth to dig the marina
4.5 km of new waterfront created
18-hole golf course
214 acres of nature preserve
13 types of birds in the preserved environmental area
7 km network of trails
40 shopfronts
1,000 permanent jobs created on-site
1,500 jobs off-site
8,000 person years in employment during construction
$4.4 million will be generated annually in taxes for Innisfil
$2.4 million annually for Simcoe County
$190 million in annual spending by visitors
$30 million in annual revenue to all levels of government
$1.5 billion total cost for the master-planned community
600 acres total at Friday Harbour
The Friday Harbour sales centre is located at Eagles Nest Golf Course, 10000 Dufferin St., Maple, and is open Monday to Thursday and weekends from 11 am to 6 pm. Call 647-351-0991 for more information.
