Seastoke
Well-known member
The word is that MDL have sold their storage facility at Galmpton on the Dart has been sold , where will that leave owner in their marinas. It might not be true.
MDL Rumour on the river .
- Thread starter Seastoke
- Start date
rbcoomer
Active member
I think the 'Word' is probably right. ? I heard similar in the early Autumn. Much should remain the same for users, but some new plans and investment as I understand. I'm sure it will be made public by parties concerned when they're ready, if indeed it has happened...
ozzie
Member
I berth in Brixham and some friends there have allegedly met the new owner. Apparently the deal has been done and there is allegedly an agreement that prices for MDL berth holders are frozen for an interim period. Nothing official has come from MDL though other than berthing fees have gone up and early payment discount is now reduced to 4%!
Boat2016
Active member
Probably sold it on when they couldn’t get planning permission to develop the site, MDL have no interest in providing boatyard services as its too much of an inconvenience to them, I was a loyal MDL customer for 15 years but gave up when services declined, now all they want is your mooring fees.
volvopaul
Well-known member
A bit like supply paint without a brush .
Get used to it everywhere folks as capital investment always comes before customer satisfaction.
Boat2016
Active member
It’s been confirmed today…no longer a rumour.
Amlov
Active member
Elessar
Well-known member
Read their FAQs.
Frequent questions maybe but they are not really answered.
“why do we sell dart side quay” for example they simply don’t answer.
“We are trying to divest the business of anything to do with boats as we are a property company” would be a far clearer answer.
They admit further down that they don’t want to spend money on equipment for boats.
And releasing land for customer benefitting activities should say we’ll let some third party companies rent the space if we can’t sell the land for flats.
dpb
Well-known member
Sort of thread drift I suppose but this thread prompted me to have a look at the MDL web site where I found that in some marinas they are 'allowing' airbnb type rentals as long as the boat owner pays an extra £1030 + vat. I am not an MDL customer these days so not sure I would feel about that, I know such rental has been discussed on here before.
alandalus11
Active member
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Seastoke
Well-known member
The key issue is things only last this year , so for one free storage for 8 weeks will disapear, in which iam in favour of as they run out of space for people to have work done.
ari
Well-known member
The fact that it sold to another boatyard at least gives some hope that it might stay a boatyard, rather than being sold to someone trying to develop it into a 'waterside village'.
I don't buy the idea mooted above that MDL only owned it themselves trying to do exactly that, they'd owned it for at over a quarter of a century.
I don't buy the idea mooted above that MDL only owned it themselves trying to do exactly that, they'd owned it for at over a quarter of a century.
Elessar
Well-known member
Property development is a long game. It took 40 years to build out Ocean Village.
Boat2016
Active member
It may not have been the intention from the start but their business model has changed over the last few years along with management changes.
I was using Dartside 30 years back and was owned by MDL at the time while providing excellent service to their customers.
ari
Well-known member
I'm sure it did but after 30 years, development of Dartside Quay by MDL as anything but a boatyard never even started.
rbcoomer
Active member
Thankfully the Dart has been fairly resistant to development, but I fear that is changing. White Rock in Paignton and the new Inglewood estate will spread towards the Dart. I can envisage housing in view of the Dart within the next decade or two. Short term greed overrides the longer term picture every time and pressure on councils to permit even more housing doesn't help. I think Dartside can thrive in the right hands and there are ambitious plans, but the whole of the South Devon area is turning into housing at an alarming rate so I hope they can resist the developers. Baltic Wharf in Totnes is gradually being consumed and will surely go at some point soon. Noss is being redeveloped and will I believe, still contain housing and hotel alongside the boatyard and units. More boat storage space would be good, but the housing generates a faster return. There is very strong demand for lifting in the area at the time when most want a lift (winter and early spring), so I think people will be forced to slowly adapt and do annual maintenance at different times. Where I work we are booked well into May and every summer gets busier later. If the Northern Arm of Brixham harbour ever happens (or even more remotely, the third harbour at Torquay), there will be more pontoons, more boats and more storage needed!
Seastoke
Well-known member
Where in Torquay will it be .
KeithMD
Well-known member
We had a similar experience with MDL at QAB.
KeithMD
Well-known member
I'd appreciate your views on what the long term picture is - or should be.
It's true there's pressure on councils to permit more housing. That's been the case for the last 20 years at least, with central government policy (both Labour and Conservative) to build thousands of new homes. Every county was given a quota, and in turn the biggest towns and parishes were given a sub-quota as well. Even when the local councils objected, developers knew they could rely on central policy to give them a good chance of winning any planning appeals. I know this from the inside, having been a chairman of a parish council in the West Country and dealing with planning applications for new housing estates.
Plus, for the last 50 years there's been a dire shortage of housing for young people. Because so many older people retire to Devon and Cornwall, the housing market is distorted in favour of rich older people. Let's say the kind of people (like us) that can afford to own a yacht
.Very few young people have any chance of being able to afford even an "affordable" new home, employment (for them) is heavily skewed towards seasonal tourism and temporary work. There's a shortage of permanent work, many young people give up and leave the county. Or when they leave school and go to university, they don't come back for 30~40 years until they in turn retire. With a bit of luck, by then they are rich enough to own a yacht as well, and want somewhere to keep it. And so the cycle continues.
ozzie
Member
We have had our email from MDL confirming the sale has gone through. I usually get lifted there but after trying to get a date from then since January without success I finally gave up and was lifted at Noss yesterday. Friends are currently out at Dartside and said its not a happy place to be. whether its to do with the sale or something else but he said the staff are miserable and not very helpful. He was charged £20 for one days electric! Saw my engineer yesterday and he told me they have put contractors day fee upto £20 per person per day which has to be passed on to his customers....
