A 13-year fixture of West Seattle's waterfront could vanish within weeks. Alki Kayak Tours owner Greg Whittaker says Marination Ma Kai, the restaurant that holds the master concession agreement for the Seacrest Park boathouse, is terminating his subcontract there — a move he says will likely force his company into bankruptcy and dissolution.
Whittaker has rented kayaks, stand-up paddle boards, canoes and bikes out of the boathouse at 1600 Harbor Ave SW since 2013, according to Westside Seattle. He says he learned this month that Marination intends to end the arrangement after renewing its own concession deal with the City of Seattle, and that the company partnered with a new vendor for the space without a competitive bidding process or advance notice to his business. The Duwamish Tribe is the incoming recreation partner for the boathouse sublease, the outlet reports.
A Business Built Around One Dock
Whittaker says his sea kayaking operation cannot simply relocate elsewhere in West Seattle, a claim rooted in the scarcity of comparable shoreline access points along Elliott Bay. Seacrest Park hosts the King County Water Taxi terminal. Alki Kayak Tours has used that location since at least 2005 to run guided sea kayaking tours, educational paddles during Orca Action Month, and equipment rentals, according to the company's own program listings.
Whittaker also owns Mountain 2 Sound Outfitters, a paddlesports and winter-sports retail shop on SW Alaska Street, which the Westside Seattle report notes has struggled with crime and harassment — a detail that underscores the broader strain on his business footprint if the Seacrest Park location closes. Losing the boathouse sublease would not just end one lease; Whittaker says it threatens to unravel the entire company.
Marination Says It Followed Protocol
Marination Ma Kai co-owners Kamala Saxton and Roz Edison, whose Hawaiian-Korean fusion food truck had been operating for more than five years by February 2013, pushed back on the idea that they skirted the rules. Marination Ma Kai at Seacrest Park had opened in October and was open by February 2013. The pair said proper protocol required Seattle Parks and Recreation to acknowledge a signed Letter of Intent before they could disclose the new partner's identity — which is why the Duwamish Tribe's name only became public this week, per the same report.
Saxton and Edison also said they passed Whittaker's contact information along to the incoming partner in case it wants to purchase his equipment, adding that they want to make the transition as smooth as possible.
City Silence and an Unanswered Appeal
Westside Seattle asked Seattle Parks and Recreation whether the sublease decision rests solely with Marination, whether a bidding process is required, whether the matter will be discussed at the upcoming board meeting, and whether a variance is needed — questions the department had not answered as of the outlet's latest update. Whittaker has appealed the decision to Seattle Parks and says he plans to attend the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners meeting Thursday, October 22, to press his case in person.
Decades of Public-Private History at the Boathouse
The Seacrest Park boathouse has been run by third-party concessionaires under city agreements since the 1980s, following a renovation funded in part by King County Metro mitigation dollars, according to Seattle City Council records. Marination LLC itself won the site's six-year master concession agreement in February 2013 after a competitive 2011 Request for Proposals process, a history that shows master concessions at Seacrest Park are themselves subject to periodic municipal re-bidding.
