ABOUT
NAVY PIER MARINA
Welcome to Navy Pier Marina, the newest boating destination on Lake Michigan.
Navy Pier Marina is excited to offer Lake Michigan boaters a one-of-a-kind boating experience.
Located in the heart of iconic Navy Pier, Chicago’s only all-transient marina brings world class amenities, service, dining, shopping & entertainment directly to Lake Michigan’s boating community.
With immediate access to hundreds of dining, shopping and entertainment options and flexible, short-term docking options, our guests are offered everything needed to have an unmatched boating experience in Chicago.
Offering luxury features and amenities, we provide a 5-star stay to guests, making Navy Pier Marina the premier boating destination on Lake Michigan. Navy Pier Marina is ideal for any type of guest, Loopers, locals, charters, sailing, yachting and boating clubs or vacationers. Our online reservation system will make booking your space quick and convenient. Once we open, you will be able to ebter your slip requirements and your preferered dates, day or time of stay - and all Navy Pier Marina has to offer will be waiting for you upon your arrival!
UPDATES
AROUND PROGRESS
LATEST MARINA NEWS
Navy Pier Marina Supporters,
I am very excited to share that we have resolved our dispute with the City of Chicago and have entered into an agreement that will allow the long-awaited Navy Pier Marina to be built. We will be submitting our final revised plans for issuance of the Harbor Permit, which will allow us to commence construction.
We will work hard to construct Navy Pier’s transient marina in the coming year and anticipate opening by early summer 2025. We will welcome boaters from Chicago, the Great Lakes, Great Loopers, and boating groups and clubs looking for modern mooring facilities in the heart of Chicago!
Navy Pier Marina in its unique location, providing direct access to Chicago’s iconic Navy Pier and downtown Chicago, will offer approximately 6,400 linear feet of broadside (side-tie) mooring for vessels up to 130’ in length with a mix of fixed and floating piers. Amenities will include power and water hookups, pump-out service, a Boaters Service Facility with restrooms, showers, and a ship’s store. The marina will also host a bicycle repair station and a pet-friendly environment.
Please help us spread the news within the boating community. Ongoing construction, amenities, opening date and how to make reservations updates will be posted on our website.
We thank Mayor Johnson’s administration for its cooperation and foresight in seeing the many benefits that Navy Pier Marina will bring to Navy Pier, the City of Chicago and its citizens – including increased tourism revenue to support programs for the people of Chicago and important youth programs. We also thank Navy Pier Inc. for its continued collaboration and support for the project.
We will keep you updated as things develop.
- Randy
SUMMER 2023
Fans & supporters: Thank you for sticking with us!
We are pleased to know that the administration that has blocked its own project, #NavyPierMarina, is a lame duck and hopeful that will break the logjam we have never understood. How does the same City that “owns Navy Pier,” and who’s City Council unanimously approved a transient boat dock marina there – after extensive departmental committee work, public hearings and ZONING APPROVAL – tell its own CDOT NOT TO issue the harbor permit to us that would allow us to actually start the work? It is and remains an injustice...and worse, it makes no sense.
We will continue to fight to bring you the marina we promised based upon the City’s promised zoning approvals. Thank you for standing with us! Vote for a new Mayor that will approve the marina harbor permit without further delay so we can bring:
• Navy Pier Marina to the heart of Chicago
• Upwards of 100 new jobs to Chicago
• More than $10 million a year in new revenue to the City
• More unique visitors to Navy Pier and Chicago
Please help us spread the word!
With appreciation for your continued support,
Randy D. Podolsky, Manager
NPM Venture LLC
dba Navy Pier Marina
LATE 2022
As you know, I have been trying to get Navy Pier Marina built in Chicago. The project started in 2015 and received full City Council approval in 2016. From there, all permits were issued by the US Army Corp and IDNR (plus many other agencies). Then the water purification plant nearby decided they were not in favor of the marina at Navy Pier, and wrongly encouraged CDOT to throw a wrench in the works by not issuing our last ministerial construction permit. It has been a struggle since then, but I will not give up!
The marina will be featured on a WGN investigative report next week, concerning the water plant’s false claims of security concerns. I am looking forward to seeing how that turns out.
I started this Change.org petition to raise awareness.
I would be grateful if you could sign up and help me by spreading the word through social and email to anyone you think would be interested.
All boaters on Lake Michigan should be interested in seeing this recreational transient boat marina come to fruition!
You can also sign up for periodic updates from me here, on our website, as well as our social media channels.
AUGUST 2022
Greetings Friends of Navy Pier Marina,
A quick summer '22 update, and 3 quick points for you:
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Our lawsuit has been remanded back to the state courts. We are hopeful that will move things along in a timely manner.
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Check out this excellent coverage of the situation by Paris Schutz at WTTW.
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John Howell of WLS AM covered the story as well, here, with added humor.
Stay up-to-date with all the latest news coverage and status updates involving the lawsuit on our Press page. Be sure to also follow along on the Navy Pier Marina Instagram and Facebook pages for quick highlights and shareable content.
JUNE 2022
The bad news: We still have no marina due to Chicago Department of Transportation refusing to issue the construction permit, despite city council approval of the marina project in 2016. The mayor’s office refuses to discuss the situation with us and has stonewalled any progress.
Last September we filed a lawsuit against the city asking the court to order CDOT/the city to issue the permit. The wheels of justice do not move swiftly, and we are waiting for over 9-months now for a federal judge to rule on a couple of pending motions before the court.
The good news: The Federal waters between Navy Pier and the Jardine Water Filtration Plant (known as the North Slip) are now 100% accessible to ALL boaters! The US Army Corp of Engineers, with support from the US Coast Guard, required the water department to remove their illegal buoys which were placed at the east end of the North Slip to discourage boaters from transiting and anchoring in that area. Just like the “Playpen” which we all use for recreational boating fun, the North Slip is NOT off limits to recreation or other boats.
Bear in mind, and this is important, just like the Playpen, boats cannot moor to the walls surrounding the water plant, or Navy Pier, at any time without express permission from the respective party. There should also be no wakes in this limited navigation area.
In the end, I blame the mayor and her administration for not living up to the agreement that the 2016 city council approved. Not only does it adversely impact the boating community, it also costs the city millions of dollars of economic revenue each year – and in times when every dollar coming in counts and can be used for whatever programs the city so chooses!
Here's what we can do:
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Spread the word that the North Slip is accessible to all boaters
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Vote in a new mayor
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Write city hall, your alderman or woman, and even the governor, requesting they take action to cause the city to issue the building permit
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Ask your friends and family to sign up for our updates at navypiermarina.com
