Single-digit temperatures and snow showers can cause a switch from January reality to summer dreaming. Like pleasure cruising Lake Michigan on a July weekend with a cool wind and moderate chop.
For some Big Lake boaters who moor at the state’s North Point Marina in Winthrop Harbor, sometime in July may be when they get a slip at the state-owned facility. Citing poor financial performance, the marina’s operator, Dallas-based Suntex Marinas, has sought to end its contract, officials announced last month.
Since then, the request to terminate the contract, which caught state officials by surprise, has left the Illinois Department of Natural Resources scrabbling to find a replacement vendor for the largest pleasure boat marina on the Great Lakes. It will not be easy to lure a new operator if Suntex, the world’s largest marina operator with some 90 marinas coast-to-coast under contract, can’t make a go of it. One reason may be due to the lack of remedial infrastructure work on the breakwater protecting the marina.
That means that unless a contractor is found, North Point, which opened in 1989, may not welcome lake sailors this boating season. One source estimated the IDNR contract with Suntex, which also operates marinas for the Chicago Park District, was worth some $13.5 million over the last seven years.
North Point Marina has nearly 1,500 slips in a protected floating-dock system. From Waukegan Harbor north to Racine, Wisconsin, boaters say there aren’t enough slips in the surrounding market to pick up the slack if North Point fails to open for the 2026 season.
Without a management team on site, personnel will be unavailable to set up the slips for boaters’ use. The summer boating season normally opens at the marina on May 1.
Waukegan Marina, just south of the harbor, begins its 2026 boating season on March 15, weather depending. (Charles Selle/For the Lake County News-Sun)
Waukegan Marina is one location ready to take in boaters who may find themselves without a port of call this summer. The city’s recreational marina south of the harbor consists of two basins, with 648 slips across 34 acres.
“We’re getting an influx of new customers,” said Joe Seidelmann, port and harbor manager for the Waukegan Port District, which administers the lakefront marina. “A lot more are coming with the uncertainty.”
A Winthrop Harbor native, Seidelmann worked at North Point for nine years before leaving to oversee properties in Daytona Beach, Florida. He eventually found his way back to Lake County and the Port District a few years ago.
The confusion at North Point “certainly is benefiting us”, he said, adding, “We’ve seen an immediate influx, a surge of charter captains. It’s their livelihood.”
Like North Point, Waukegan Marina, which opened in 1985, features modern floating docks. Seidelmann said if needed, the marina could expand to another 100 slips by using fixed concrete piers, which were decommissioned when floating docks were installed.
Waukegan amenities and costs are similar to North Point, although without an on-site restaurant like Tropics at the Winthrop Harbor site. Both marinas are serviced by Metra stops and have yacht clubs. Waukegan also features concierge boater service and a state-of the-art power boat sales, service and storage facility.
The city marina slips run from the cheapest at $1,985 for the season for one at 26 feet to $7,274 for a 65-footer, according to Seidelmann. The season at Waukegan runs from March 15 to Nov. 15, weather permitting, in order for charter boats to hit the lake early and late for salmon fishing, he added.
The Waukegan Port District, formed in 1955 by state law, is comprised of a seven-member unpaid board which oversees the harbor, marina and Waukegan International Airport. Four of the commissioners, who serve six-year terms, are appointed by the mayor of Waukegan, three by the governor.
The district contracts with marina manager F/3 Marina (Founders Three) to operate the facility, with Seidelmann in charge. F/3, based in Brookfield, Wisconsin, also manages marinas across the country, including in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin, on Green Bay in vacation destination Door County; Pleasant Prairie and Racine, Wisconsin, on Lake Michigan; and Rock Island on the Mississippi River.
Waukegan Harbor, just north of the marina, is the only designated safe haven for large commercial vessels traveling between Chicago and Milwaukee and is often dredged by the Army Corps of Engineers. It is the only facility between Chicago and Milwaukee that offers both a commercial harbor and a pleasure-boat marina.
Seidelmann said North Point also needs to be dredged for the deep-draft sailboats moored there, as lake sand builds up, causing one-way traffic in and out of the marina and creating a choke point. The dredging permitting timeline alone can take between six and eight months, he said.
That could mean North Point, if dredging is required, may not open this boating season. Which would be a shame not only for boaters left jockeying for a new homeport who have used the world-class facility in past summers.
An estimated 150 jobs would be lost, along with revenue for the village of Winthrop Harbor. Seems state officials and elective legislators are on their way to scuttling the marina’s summer boating season.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
sellenews@gmail.com
X @sellenews
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/19/charles-selle-waukegan-marina/
