"Current law's 49-year maximum lease term with SLC cannot support the needed private lending and investment." That sentence comes from Assemblymember Anamarie Ávila Farías, in her statement for the Assembly committee analysis of AB 2312. It explains more about the future of the Martinez waterfront than any rendering does.
If you're comparing Contra Costa towns and keep coming back to downtown Martinez and its shoreline on the Carquinez Strait, the marina is part of what you're weighing. Its future depends on financing more than on anyone's taste in architecture. The deal has to work for a lender before it can work for anyone else, and that requirement has already shaped the plan.
A marina the city owns but can't sell or afford
The Martinez Waterfront covers 135 acres along the strait. Parts of it have been held in trust by the City for the State of California since 1851. The Marina takes up 70 of those acres and includes a public launch ramp, a fishing pier, 332 boat slips, a park and marine-related businesses, according to the City's revitalization page.
Because it is trust land, the city can lease it but can't sell it. The marina is also supposed to pay for itself through slip licenses and fees, and it doesn't. Over the past five years the City has spent almost $2 million from its General Fund on urgent marina needs. Long-range forecasts tie those costs to citywide budget deficits of $1.2 million a year through 2030.
The 2025–26 Contra Costa County Civil Grand Jury put the annual subsidy at about $650,000 in its report on the Martinez waterfront. One reason revenue falls short shows up in a June 2024 State Lands Commission staff report, which counted about 110 occupied slips out of 332, including 10 berths used for oil-spill response. That count reflects conditions in 2024.
The city has started raising prices. In its formal response to the Grand Jury, the City said slip fee increases began in January 2026 and another 20 percent increase is set for January 2027. It called these the first substantial slip fee increases in about 20 years. A Development Incentive and Community Development Program started in 2024 has brought in $74,019, with about $150,000 more expected within the next year. The City still says the Marina Enterprise Fund "operates at a significant deficit."
Fee increases and a small incentive program can narrow the gap. They can't rebuild a basin.
What rebuilding costs
The Grand Jury cited engineering estimates from Anchor QEA for the major pieces:
| Item | Estimate | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Full marina replacement | $14–17 million | Grand Jury report |
| Replacing one of seven seawall sections | $7–9 million | Grand Jury report |
| Repeating the 2022 partial dredge | $930,000–$1.8 million | Grand Jury report |
The 2022 partial dredge removed 37,249 cubic yards of material and still didn't restore full use of the basin. The City says that dredge cost almost $1 million from the General Fund. It also agreed with the Grand Jury that it has no money for more dredging. The City told the Grand Jury that a continued subsidy at this scale threatens core city services.
That leaves the City with a waterfront it can't sell, can't afford to rebuild, and can't keep subsidizing indefinitely. That is the starting point for everything below.
Why the plan includes hotels
The Mercury News reported that the City looked into a public-private partnership in 2024. Safe Harbor Marinas, the nation's largest marina owner and operator, showed interest in managing the site. Safe Harbor also told the city a partnership would only work with more activity on the waterfront, such as a hotel and other commercial uses. Safe Harbor then introduced city officials to Tucker Sadler, a San Diego firm.
Tucker Sadler presented a preliminary concept on July 16, 2025. Its site plan showed three hotels of 250 keys, 150 to 180 keys, and 150 keys, for 550 to 580 rooms in total. It also included restaurants and retail, an event center, an amphitheater, a yacht club, public open space, marina slips, boat launch and storage, and parking.
On December 17, 2025, the City Council unanimously approved an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with the firm. The agreement states the financing logic directly:
"The Developer acknowledges the City expects the ultimate Proposed Development to include hotels, as expected to be necessary to the financial viability of the project. The Developer expressly agrees the Project will need to be self-financing, without any City financing."
The hotels in the plan follow from the money. The project has to pay for itself, and guest rooms produce the steady income a lender wants to see. The ENA also states that private residential housing is prohibited on the trust lands. So the plan can't include new homes on the shoreline itself, and the commercial pieces have to cover the cost. The City's December 2025 staff report named Safe Harbor as its preferred marina operator.
Why the lease change mattered
Hotels are long-lived investments, and lenders want the lease under them to last longer than the loan. That's why the lease cap came up before any building design was settled.
AB 2312, authored by Assemblymember Ávila Farías and sponsored by Tucker Sadler Architects, was chaptered on September 20, 2026, as Chapter 394, Statutes of 2026. The City's own webpage labels it "SB 2312," but the state record lists it as an Assembly bill. The law allows leases of up to 66 years on Martinez's waterfront trust lands. A longer term is possible only with State Lands Commission approval and a finding that it serves the state's best interest.
The longer cap adds 17 years. It doesn't approve a project, change any zoning, or commit any money. It removes one obstacle the author said was keeping private lenders away.
What's on the water right now
The plan is still on paper. Here is what the waterfront offers today, based on the City's own listings:
- Open: the public launch ramp, the 332-slip marina, and the park and open space.
- Reopened: the municipal fishing pier, renovated and reopened on Saturday, November 8, 2025. The City estimates the work added about 50 years to its life.
- On the adjacent East Bay Regional Park District trust lands: baseball fields, bocce courts, trails, a lawn with playground and picnic areas, a skate park, and a multipurpose field.
- Closed: some dock sections, the bait shop, the amphitheater, and the restaurant, all shut for safety or operational reasons.
- Managed by: F3 Marina, under contract to the City, since January 1, 2025.
The pier shows the limits of the current approach. The City could fund a single facility with a defined scope and get decades of use from it. A failing basin, a breakwater and seven seawall sections are too much to handle one project at a time.
The dates that decide what happens next
For anyone thinking about the next few years in Martinez, these dates matter most:
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| January 2027 | A further 20 percent slip fee increase takes effect |
| February 1, 2027 | Grand Jury deadline for Council to consider developing an alternative funding plan that doesn't interfere with the ENA |
| Early 2027 | City expects to post dates for BCDC Design Review Board and Engineering Criteria Review Board hearings |
| Throughout 2027 | More workshops, commission meetings and public presentations |
| December 17, 2027 | The 24-month ENA term ends |
Either party can leave the agreement before then if it decides the project isn't feasible or can't be financed. Any development agreement terms would be evaluated toward the end of the ENA period, depending on how the studies turn out.
If the numbers don't work
The City's response to the Grand Jury is direct about the fallback. If negotiations with Tucker Sadler fail, finding another private partner remains, in the City's words reported by The Mercury News, "the only viable long-term approach to modernizing the waterfront and reducing reliance on City subsidies." Without a partner, the city may have to consider cutting services or a "managed retreat," meaning a planned reduction of activity in the area. The City has said it will carry out the Grand Jury's contingency-planning recommendation, working with the State Lands Commission, BCDC and regional partners. A separate state requirement calls for a shoreline adaptation plan by 2034.
Mayor Brianne Zorn told The Mercury News that the Grand Jury report "was simply acknowledging all the things we'd already acknowledged, all the problems we'd already seen coming down the line." That matches the documents. The problem has been understood for years, and what's still open is whether a financeable deal comes together before the ENA expires in December 2027.
Downtown is moving on its own schedule. On August 19, 2026, the City Council approved a Downtown Entertainment Zone. It will let participating businesses serve alcohol in designated outdoor areas during approved events, with activation dates, boundaries and participating businesses still to be announced. Sarah Baird, executive director of Downtown Martinez & Co., said in the City's announcement that it builds "on the momentum we already have downtown."
A few questions buyers ask
Will there be new housing on the waterfront? Not on the trust lands. The ENA states that private residential housing is prohibited there.
Is the marina plan approved? No. The ENA only sets up a negotiation and doesn't approve a project. Environmental review, BCDC hearings and any development agreement are still ahead.
Where can I follow it? The City's revitalization page says it will post outreach schedules in late 2026 or early 2027 and BCDC hearing dates once they're confirmed in early 2027.
If the waterfront is part of why Martinez is on your list, or you own a home near downtown and want to know how this timeline could affect your plans, let's sit down with these documents together. Kelly McDougall offers a free local market consultation and home valuation, with a neighbor's view of what's changing along the Carquinez Strait and when.
