South County Report: Bullish on Yachts 

Visitors who step outside the recently opened Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center on the Chula Vista bayfront are greeted by a sight you don’t often see at resort hotels. 

Steps away from the hotel’s sparkling swimming pools and manicured grounds looms a row of ocean-going vessels hoisted out of San Diego Bay and perched atop repair platforms. 

Hulking cranes the size of small skyscrapers rise above the boats. Workers, many dressed head to toe in protective gear, crawl around the ships, sanding hulls, riveting steel plates, painting, polishing and buffing. 

The assemblage of boats includes superyachts owned by some of the world’s wealthiest people, top-secret military vessels and humble ferries to places like Catalina Island or Coronado. 

They are lined up at a dry dock next door to the Gaylord hotel because Chula Vista, improbably, is home to the west coast’s largest full-service superyacht repair and retrofitting facility. 

That 15-acre facility is about to get even bigger. 

Last month, Marine Group Boat Works, which owns and operates the Chula Vista shipyard, announced that three investors, including company president, Todd Roberts, had bought out the company’s longtime family owners and set in motion an ambitious expansion plan. 

If Roberts’ vision pans out, the Chula Vista complex of cranes, gantries and warehouse-sized repair buildings will become the hub of an international network of superyacht service facilities stretching from Mexico to as far north as possibly Alaska. 

The expansion will cement Chula Vista’s place in the rarified world of superyachting, part of what Roberts termed a global “wealth industry” of private jets, luxury real estate and boats that can sell for more than the entire annual budget of Chula Vista itself. 

“We want to build the population of yachts in the Pacific Ocean,” Roberts said. “We’re bringing more boats to the west coast that wouldn’t necessarily come here. When we talk about the economic impacts of our boatyard, that’s significant.” 

I have written about Marine Group before. And I have kept an eye on the distinctive company because its story seems symbolic of larger changes steadily transforming Chula Vista and the rest of South County. 

From unspectacular industrial beginnings, the company has transformed itself into a global-facing operation intent on leveraging its west coast location into future growth. 

To greater and lesser degrees, that’s a vision South County business and political leaders have described to me for their own spheres of influence. Marine Group’s ability to make good on its plans may serve as a bellwether for the wider aspirations of San Diego County’s rising southern half. 

Three brothers – Art, Herb and David Engel – founded Marine Group (then called Southwest Marine) in Chula Vista nearly five decades ago to service tuna fleets and Navy ships. 

The company expanded, contracted and was preparing to shut down in the early 2000s when Roberts, then a 27-year-old graduate of Cal Poly Maritime Academy, proposed reorienting the business to serve the growing market of superyachts, luxury vessels up to 220 feet long that can sell for hundreds of millions of dollars. 

The shift paid off. The company now boasts a payroll of more than 250 workers who build, repair or service large-size ships at three locations: The Chula Vista shipyard, a second shipyard in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, and a superyacht marina in downtown San Diego where yachts park to resupply, switch out crew members and plan the next stage of their voyage. 

Roberts declined to name any of his firm’s clients. But he said many are widely known, as are the companies they run. 

Last month, Roberts teamed with two Colorado-based investors, one of them a longtime Marine Group customer, to buy out the Engel family for an undisclosed sum. 

Roberts said he sees growth potential in expanding the superyachting market outside the traditional cruising grounds of the ultra-wealthy. 

The west coast, he said, is uncharted territory for many superyacht owners, who until now have preferred the calmer waters and luxury destinations of yachting hubs in the Carribean and Europe. 

By fostering a west coast network of superyacht docking and repair facilities, Roberts said he’s confident his company can help make the Pacific Ocean a destination for adventure-seeking yacht owners. 

“As yachts become larger and more expedition worthy, owners want more adventure,” he said. “The west coast is adventure-style cruising.” 

Roberts, who now serves as CEO under Marine Group’s new ownership arrangement, said he plans to expand his company’s capabilities in San Diego and establish a network of service operations up and down the west coast, starting most likely in the Sea of Cortez “and farther north on the Baja peninsula.” 

In the future, Gaylord hotel visitors can expect to see more docks next door at the Chula Vista shipyard, along with decorative fencing around the facility and a 26,000-square-foot solar array providing renewable energy. 

“You’ll see an increase in superyachts coming to town in Chula Vista,” Roberts said. “We’re competing in a global market.” 

Roberts acknowledged that uncertainty in the U.S. economy had caused what he termed “a little trepidation” in the wealth industry as tycoons pull back on splashy investments. 

But he said he sees a bright future for superyachting in San Diego. 

Which means more global wealth – and a very different public profile – coming to the Chula Vista bayfront. 

In Other News 

• A coalition of community organizers and tenants held a rally in National City’s Kimball Park on Aug. 19 to urge city officials to adopt a citywide rent control ordinance. Organizers said they planned to stage additional events and press City Council members to cap rent increases in the city and make it harder for landlords to evict tenants without just cause. 
• In other cost-of-living news, Chula Vista city officials last week unveiled a new rental subsidy program for city residents ages 55 and older who spend more than 50 percent of their monthly income on housing. Renters who qualify can receive up to $500 per month for 12 months. More information is here. 
• Newly elected South County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre joined San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria last week to unveil new warning signs on the Tijuana River alerting residents to sewage hotspots where bypassers could be exposed to toxic gases and other pollutants emanating from the river. 
• The Living Coast Discovery Center in Chula Vista announced last week it raised a record $175,000 at its recent annual Farm to Bay fundraiser. Fun fact: The Center recycled more than 90 percent of waste generated by the event thanks to the volunteer trash-sorting efforts of graduates from the Center’s Master Composter Training Course. 

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