After 27 years of planning, permitting delays, and financing questions, the long-stalled plan to rebuild Treasure Island's aging marina is finally moving forward with real money behind it. Sonoma-based Kenwood Investments and Dallas marina operator Suntex Marina Investors announced a partnership this week that will provide the capital needed to start construction as early as June 2026.
The $25 million project will replace the current 108-slip marina at Clipper Cove with a modern 168-slip facility featuring steel pilings and wider berths that can accommodate boats from 45 to 80 feet. According to SFGate, the new marina represents the first new marina entitlement on San Francisco Bay in nearly a quarter century. Construction is expected to take two years, with work restricted to June through November due to environmental protections.
A Deal Nearly Three Decades in the Making
Kenwood Investments CEO Darius Anderson first proposed redeveloping the Clipper Cove marina back in 1998, when Willie Brown was mayor. According to The San Francisco Examiner, Anderson's initial proposal would have quadrupled the number of slips and drew scrutiny partly because Anderson had been a fundraiser for Brown.
Over the years, Kenwood repeatedly scaled back its ambitions in response to community concerns. As recently as 2017, the company was still proposing 313 slips—nearly double the current plan. The project earned unanimous approval from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2019 for a 66-year lease, but questions about financing continued to delay construction, according to Kenwood Investments.
Enter Suntex: The Missing Piece
The partnership with Suntex Marina Investors appears to have solved the project's funding puzzle. According to KRON4, Suntex is the largest marina operator in the country with 95 marinas under management, including 17 in California and four in Oakland alone. The company purchased Almar Marinas, which had been managing the current Treasure Island facility, in early 2024.
"Under Mayor Lurie's leadership we are pleased to bring Suntex Marinas to San Francisco representing another example of significant investment coming to San Francisco and another sign that San Francisco is coming back," Anderson said in a statement, as reported by Kenwood Investments.
What's Changing at Clipper Cove
The current marina's wooden support pilings will be replaced with steel pilings wrapped in high-density polyethylene to fight corrosion. Current slip holders will get first priority for new spaces, and about 10% of slips will be reserved for liveaboards, according to SFGate. A public dock will accommodate about 10 transient boats, and the floating docks will sit on piers tall enough to adapt to rising sea levels.
The project received critical approval from the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) in February 2025, according to Latitude 38. BCDC regulates projects that fill or extract materials from San Francisco Bay, and the marina will add about 225 cubic yards of solid fill to the Bay.
Community Response and Sailing Center Closure
Bill Kreysler, chairman of the board of the Treasure Island Sailing Center, told The San Francisco Examiner that while Kenwood's original plans were "ambitious" and would have hindered the sailing center's ability to teach kids, the scaled-back version represents "an acceptable compromise." The nonprofit sailing center, which has served thousands of students over the years, closed in late 2024 for an expected two to three years due to broader Treasure Island redevelopment construction, according to Latitude 38.
V. Fei Tsen, president of the Treasure Island Development Authority's board, noted at a recent meeting that while developers are investing significant capital, the public has also contributed to the marina's feasibility. "The public—we—have invested several hundred million in the infrastructure that is on the landside that can also really make this marina possible," she said, as reported by SFGate.
Part of a Larger Vision
The marina project represents just one component of the massive Treasure Island redevelopment, which calls for building 8,000 new residences, hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail space, and more than 300 acres of open space. The former naval base, which the city acquired from the U.S. Navy in the 1990s, has been undergoing environmental remediation and transformation for decades.
Anderson's involvement in Treasure Island development has been both extensive and contentious. The San Francisco Standard reported in 2023 that Kenwood Investments is embroiled in litigation with its partners Stockbridge Capital Group and developer Wilson Meany over proceeds from the larger redevelopment project, with dueling lawsuits filed in April 2023.
Timeline and Next Steps
The joint venture agreement between Kenwood and Suntex is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions, according to Kenwood Investments. The developers are seeking final approval from the Treasure Island Development Authority in the coming months to meet their construction timeline.
If construction begins in June 2026 as planned, the new marina could be operational within one to two years—finally bringing nearly three decades of planning, community input, and regulatory review to fruition on the waters of Clipper Cove.
