Marina plans receive last-minute tweak

The development of a marina at 59 Main Street is reaching its final stretch. "To be honest, I think we'll be done by April," said Danny Warren, the local resident and businessman behind the project. 

Tweaks to the project's plans have brought the marina back to the Planning Board for approval in an upcoming hearing at 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 8. Two of the project's secondary buildings — a pavilion and a food preparation building — have changes to their type and location, resulting in an overall reduction of 797 square feet from the project, according to project documents. 

The food preparation building will be a shipping container modified to look like a carriage house from the late 1700s, and used as a fry-fish house and an ice cream shop, said Warren. "I'm sticking with the late 1700s, early 1800s design — like the [main] building is."

The building has the bones of a shipping container for safety reasons. Because it's built around a shipping container, "if you get a big storm warning and you know it's coming, with just a couple hours notice, there's two to three guys in town that have small cranes that could pick the thing right up and set it up into safety, and then set it right back," Warren said. 

The concept is already in action at the Cisco Brewers waterfront location in New Bedford, he added. 

The pavilion will be used as an outside wedding chapel; while only the foundation is currently built, there are renderings for how the building will look in place, said Warren. 

The marina project overall has had some delays, "but it's moving really well now," Warren said. "We're getting very close."