NYC investor buys Brooksville marina at center of legal disputes with town

A Brooksville marina that is the subject of a years-long dispute between the town and the man who owned it has been sold.

Buck’s Harbor Marina was sold last month by former owner Jon Buck to seasonal resident Andrew MacArthur and family. MacArthur, contacted by phone on Wednesday, declined to disclose the purchase price. The marina had been listed for sale for more than $1.8 million.

The marina is expected to reopen this summer after having been closed for all of 2023, MacArthur said. The sale brings to a close a dispute between Buck and the town that dates back to August 2020, when a yacht tied up to a marina mooring without permission was dragged by foul weather into another boat.

The town faulted Buck, saying he was not managing the marina’s moorings properly. The parties signed a consent agreement in which Buck said he would properly label each mooring with its size constraints and would meet other requirements under the town’s mooring ordinance, but the town later said he violated the agreement.

In 2022, Buck filed a lawsuit against the town as well as a separate tort claim seeking monetary damages, but a judge later ruled against Buck and dismissed both the claims. The town, in turn, sought and was granted an order against Buck and his business in Ellsworth District Court, which would have allowed the town to recoup administrative and legal costs estimated to be worth around a quarter million dollars.

Buck was expected to appeal the ruling to the state’s high court. But the parties agreed in May to dismiss all of their legal claims to clear the way for Buck to sell the marina, Patrick Lyons, the town’s attorney, said Wednesday.

McArthur, who owns and operates a real estate investment and management firm in New York City, said he has been a customer at the marina and both his daughters have had summer jobs there. He said he felt like he got good customer service over the years from Buck, and decided to make an offer on the marina to help both Buck and the town out of the dispute.

“We consider the Bucks our friends, and we consider Brooksville our home in a way,” MacArthur said. “We thought it was unfortunate the ways things had developed.”

The marina is staffed and expected to reopen at the end of this month, but it will not be able to sell fuel this year because the tanks on the property have to be replaced, MacArthur said.

The problem is that the existing tanks were never registered with the state fire marshal’s office when they were installed decades ago, years before Buck bought it, MacArthur said. As a result, the state is requiring the marina to install new tanks, which will take months to arrive. He said they expect to be able to sell diesel and gasoline again next year.

Otherwise, the marina is scheduled to open at the end of June and will operate as normal, MacArthur said. It will have slips, moorings, and shower and laundry facilities available to transient boaters, and will offer boat rentals and seasonal memberships. The marina store with snacks, gifts, beer and wine also will be open as usual.