Mare Island Offers Rare Shipyard Capacity
JLL has begun marketing the West Coast maritime campus, formerly known as Mare Island Naval Shipyard, and its 350 acres and four operational dry docks.
The property in Vallejo, Calif., represents the only privately controlled West Coast shipyard with existing infrastructure purpose-built for defense and commercial operations.
This dock represents a generational opportunity as federal mandates and bipartisan legislation drive the largest maritime industrial mobilization since World War II.
JLL is advising The Nimitz Group, owner of the maritime industrial land and assets, on repositioning the property's irreplaceable maritime infrastructure to accommodate surging demand for domestic ship and submarine manufacturing.
The owner is pursuing flexible transaction structures, including leasing individual assets or entering strategic partnerships with investors or tenants.
The Cost of Building New Docks
Building new graving dry docks today is an extraordinarily cost- and labor-intensive process, according to Karlen Beitman, senior vice president, public institutions advisory, local government lead, JLL.
"Between complex environmental permitting, rigorous testing, and the extreme scarcity of finding deep-water sites that can physically accommodate these structures, it would likely take a decade of planning before shovels could even hit the ground," he told GlobeSt.com.
For context, the U.S. Navy's ongoing project to construct a single new graving dry dock at Pearl Harbor is costing billions of dollars on a highly compressed, multi-year timeline, he said.
"Having four existing, structurally sound graving dry docks poised to accommodate immediate modernization, rather than starting from scratch, is the true value proposition of Mare Island," Beitman said.
"When you couple that with a 30-foot channel depth for direct deep-water access, over 30 MW of existing utility capacity, and adjacent, purpose-built maritime facilities with 60-plus-foot clear heights designed specifically for large-scale vessel construction, you have a physical asset and a level of operational readiness that simply cannot be replicated today."
Mare Island Only Privately Controlled Shipyard
While other private shipyards on the West Coast use floating dry docks, Mare Island is the only privately controlled shipyard with existing graving (land-excavated) dry docks with available capacity.
This distinction is critical: graving docks offer superior stability, weight capacity, and operational advantages for heavy ship and submarine construction, maintenance, and repair compared to floating alternatives.
Mare Island is uniquely positioned to bridge heavy industrial capacity and cutting-edge technology. Located just 30 miles from San Francisco, the campus offers immediate access to the world's leading AI and technology talent pool, as well as proximity to several world-class research universities.
"This geographic advantage allows Mare Island to support an advanced maritime industrial ecosystem, offering tech-forward defense contractors and autonomous vessel developers an unmatched level of operational flexibility, security, and speed-to-market," Beitman said.
US Facing Naval Capacity Constraints
The domestic maritime industrial base is facing naval capacity constraints, particularly in submarine maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) and advanced vessel manufacturing.
"The repositioning of the 350-acre southern peninsula of Mare Island, purpose-built for maritime industrial activity, can serve as an immediate 'pressure-release valve' for these national security and commercial demands," Beitman said.
JLL's repositioning strategy centers on making Mare Island's existing maritime infrastructure available for immediate use while preserving a secure operating environment for industrial and defense users. Under its "Built Once. Ready Now." framework, the firm is offering maritime tenants access to the site's large fabrication spaces and graving dry docks without the time and cost of building comparable facilities from scratch.
At the same time, JLL is separating the maritime industrial campus from Mare Island's broader mixed-use and residential redevelopment. The approach is intended to provide industrial and defense partners with a dedicated, secure setting while allowing housing and retail development elsewhere on the island to support the growing workforce.
Greg Matter, who co-leads JLL's Advanced Manufacturing Group; Matt Bracco, who co-leads JLL's North Bay Industrial team; Kristi Childers with JLL's Agency Leasing group; and Beitman with JLL's Public Institutions' Strategic Advisory team are leading the marketing and advisory efforts.
Source: GlobeSt/ALM