Thursday, May 17, 2007

Grand opening planned for Rock Creek Marina

by Kenneth Lassiter

The water is high and the remodeling is hectic at what is now known as Rock Creek Marina, but the marina’s new owners are confident everything will be in place for a grand opening planned for Memorial Day weekend.

Dennis and Yvonne Hewitt, owners of the Ozawkie Boat Company, signed the papers to take over the marina from longtime owners D.J. and Rosie Perron April 18. The Perrons had owned the marina for 30 years. The Hewitts joined with partners Alex Glenn, Kansas City, and couple Steve Teske and Stephanie Lempke of Iowa, and 14 other investors in making the move to buy the business, which includes boat storage, a dock store, restaurant and bar.

Since signing the papers, the Hewitts have gone to work making upgrades and remodeling the store, restaurant and bar on both the inside and outside. Workers from Heinen Custom Operations, Heinen Plumbing-Heating-Electrical and Heinen Repair, as well as Rouse Construction, have descended on the marina in efforts to get the work done quickly.

Dennis and Yvonne, who are the managing owners of the business, said the recent heavy rains that overfilled Perry Lake have slowed work some but the remodeling is back on schedule. The chambers of commerce for Meriden/Ozawkie, Valley Falls and Oskaloosa are planning an after-hours social at the marina beginning at 5:30 p.m. May 24.

“We’ve really got to give credit to all the Heinen guys,” Dennis said. “They’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty for us. We gave them a lot of work and a short time to get it done in and they’ve been out here night and day helping us.”

Not much has escaped at least some touch-up work at the marina. Full remodeling work is changing the look of the dock store, restaurant and bar and there’s more work yet to be done. Yvonne said work on the small ballroom that is adjacent to the restaurant will be a winter project. The restaurant will be sublet with plans to have it open by Memorial Day as well.

Dennis Hewitt said the process started when a banker who was helping Perron look for a buyer thought the Hewitts would be a good fit for the marina because of the family’s more than 30-year history with what was once Ozawkie Marine and since May 2004 has been called Ozawkie Boat Co. Dennis’ parents, Jim and Mary Hewitt, started Ozawkie Marine in the early 1970s and recently retired.

“We didn’t think we had enough to do,” joked Dennis.

He and Yvonne live in Ozawkie and plan to keep the Ozawkie Boat Co. in operation as is.

“D.J. had had the place on the market for several years. I think he had some guys with the big corporate mentality come in here and he didn’t go along with that. We’ve done business with him for years, so he knew us and knew that’s not how we did things.”

The couple had known Teske and Lempke as longtime customers in the boat sales business and offered them a chance to join in the marina business. Glenn, whose father does some corporate legal work for the Hewitts, joined up as a person with experience in putting together investment groups for shopping centers and similar projects With those pieces in place, the rest of the investment group was put into place by January and the deal for the marina was worked out within a couple months.

D.J.’s son, Roy, is one of three long-time employees of the marina that the Hewitts have carried over into what is now simply Rock Creek Marina. Yvonne said they are looking to hire a mechanic along with summer help in coming weeks. She said several former summer employees have called to inquire about coming back for another summer.

The couple got an early taste of a monkey wrench in the works with the flooding that has covered the new parking area the Hewitts recently installed. Dennis Hewitt said with the remodeling underway and neither the lake store nor accompanying gas pump in business yet, the only hindrance caused was the slow down in remodeling work.

Both Dennis and Yvonne said they are getting their feet wet, so to speak, in the marina business, as they know what it’s like to sell boats but now are getting into the other side of the industry in such areas as selling boat gas and bait and offering slip space for boat storage

“We’ve been very happy with it,” Dennis said.

Yvonne said about 75 percent of the marina’s slips are accounted for with boats with the rest still filling.

“There’s been a lot of work to do to get it where we like it but that’s gone well. We know it’s the kind of business where you’ve got to keep maintaining and keep tabs on the maintenance of all areas.”

While most of the marina will stay the same other than being newly remodeled, the Hewitts do have some other plans in place. Yvonne said some of the picnic tables from one end of the marina may be moved closer to the restaurant to allow for outside eating, and the current office building is planned for renovation into new bathrooms and perhaps four to six small hotel rooms.

A new office for the Hewitts is being added as part of the dock store. Plans for a lodge and cabins that could be used year-around for outdoors enthusiasts are also in the early works, and the business ties in perfectly with the Ozawkie Boat Co. so it gives the Hewitts a built-in marketing venue.

“We’ve got a lot to learn about the business,” Yvonne said.

She’s been busy lately getting all the marina’s records transferred to computer files.

“It’s a lot different than just selling boats and working on boats. We plan to keep the boat gas prices competitive with the street prices. The boat slips are filling quickly, so that’s good.”