For towns and cities that own a marina
Your marina is already an enterprise fund. It can also be a power asset.
A GridLynQ battery hub on municipal marina land turns idle waterfront acreage into dispatchable capacity, backup for the harbormaster building and the nearby lift station, and a new revenue line for the enterprise fund. This page lays out three ways to own it, the bond structures that fit each one, and a procurement path your counsel can defend.
Ownership models
Three ways a town can take this on
The right one depends on debt capacity, enterprise fund health and how much market risk the town wants to hold. Every model keeps municipal facilities first in the dispatch order during a declared outage.
Town owns, town finances
Enterprise revenue bond or GO bond
The town issues debt through the marina enterprise fund or the general fund, owns the hub outright, and contracts GridLynQ for turnkey build plus a long-term O&M and market-dispatch agreement.
What the town gets
- Keeps 100% of dispatch and charging revenue net of the O&M fee
- Asset sits on the town balance sheet and can be refinanced
- Sole control over shelter dispatch and outage priority
Trade-offs
- — Requires debt capacity and, for GO, a town meeting or referendum
- — Town carries market and performance risk (mitigated by a floor in the O&M contract)
Hybrid: town land, shared capital
Ground lease + revenue share
The town contributes the site under a long-term ground lease and funds the civil and interconnection scope; GridLynQ funds the blocks, inverters and controls. Revenue splits by capital contributed.
What the town gets
- Modest capital ask for civil and service upgrade work, sized with your team
- Lease income plus a revenue share from day one
- Buy-out option at a scheduled price after an initial term
Trade-offs
- — Split ownership needs a clear O&M and casualty allocation
- — Revenue share is lower than full ownership
No town debt: availability P3
GridLynQ owns, town buys resilience
GridLynQ finances, builds, owns and operates. The town pays a fixed annual availability fee for guaranteed backup hours at named municipal facilities and receives a share of market revenue above a threshold.
What the town gets
- Zero debt issued, zero capital at risk, no referendum
- Budgetable fixed line item with performance penalties attached
- Property tax or PILOT revenue from a private-owned asset
Trade-offs
- — Town keeps the smallest slice of the upside
- — Procurement still needs a competitive process in most states
Bond sizing model
What the town would actually issue, and whether it covers
Hubs are built from standard prefabricated battery blocks. We size par amount, annual debt service, coverage ratio and the year cumulative net turns positive against your harbor's own numbers — block pricing and the discount schedule are released with the model after review.
Public-private bond and PPP structures
Partnership structures, debt-coverage tests and the revenue-share terms behind a town-owned marina offering.
- Revenue bond, general obligation and P3 structures side by side
- Debt service and coverage-ratio tests a lender will run
- Revenue share and host-fee terms
- A run against your own harbor's numbers
Bond options
Instruments that fit a municipal marina hub
| Instrument | Pledge | Approval | Tenor |
|---|---|---|---|
Marina enterprise revenue bond The cleanest fit when the marina already runs as a self-supporting enterprise fund. Slip fees, fuel margin, EV charging and V2G dispatch all flow to the same pledge. Lenders will size to a 1.25x–1.35x coverage test. | Marina enterprise fund revenues only | Usually council/select board authorization; no referendum | 15–20 years |
General obligation bond Lowest coupon and the longest amortization, so the annual budget hit is smallest. Costs debt capacity, and the political lift is real — pair it with a written resilience commitment for shelters and lift stations. | Full faith and credit of the town | Town meeting or referendum in most states | 20–30 years |
Green / climate bond designation Second-party opinion and annual use-of-proceeds reporting. Often widens the buyer pool and can shave basis points; our annual performance report is already built to satisfy the reporting obligation. | Overlay on either structure above | Same as underlying bond | Same as underlying |
BAN / interim financing Useful when the interconnection study timeline is uncertain. Fund long-lead equipment and site work on notes, then take out with the permanent bond once the utility issues its final agreement. | Short-term notes rolled into permanent debt | Council authorization | 1–3 years |
State revolving loan / resilience fund Many coastal states carry a resilience or clean energy revolving fund that will take a subordinate position behind the bond. Blending 20–30% at a below-market rate materially improves coverage. | Subordinate or blended with bond proceeds | Application, not a vote | 10–20 years, below market |
Procurement path
From first memo to notice to proceed
Feasibility memo (no cost, 3 weeks)
We take two years of marina enterprise fund statements, the utility service record and the outage history and return a sized hub, a revenue band and an honest interconnection risk read.
Structure selection with finance director
Run the three ownership models side by side against the town's debt capacity, existing enterprise fund coverage and appetite for a ballot question. Output is a one-page recommendation for the finance committee.
Bond counsel and rating conversation
Your counsel confirms the pledge, the tax status of a revenue-generating energy asset and whether private use rules affect a tax-exempt issue. We supply the technical exhibits and the revenue methodology.
Competitive procurement
An RFP or RFQ built around performance specification rather than a named product, so the town gets a defensible award. We supply a model scope of work the town owns and can issue to any bidder.
Authorization and issuance
Select board or council authorization, then issuance on the town's normal calendar. Long-lead equipment can be ordered against a BAN so the build is not waiting on the bond sale.
Build, commission, report
9–14 months from notice to proceed depending on the interconnection queue. Annual public performance report from year one, tied to the coverage covenants and any resilience commitments.
Questions finance directors ask
Before you call counsel
Does a revenue-generating energy asset break tax exemption on the bonds?
It depends on how much of the output serves private parties and how the O&M agreement is written. Bond counsel will look at the private business use and private payment tests. In practice we structure the operating agreement as a qualified management contract so the town keeps a tax-exempt issue; where the private use is unavoidable, a small taxable tranche covers that portion.
What happens if V2G revenue comes in under projection?
The O&M and dispatch agreement carries a revenue floor for the debt-service period. If market revenue lands below the floor, GridLynQ's fee is reduced first and then a shortfall payment is made before the town's coverage is touched. That mechanic is what lets a revenue bond price properly.
Can the marina enterprise fund carry the debt on its own?
For a single deployment block, often yes, provided the fund is already covering operations. We run the coverage ratio for your enterprise fund as part of the bond model reviewed with your team. Below 1.25x, either the town's share of financing goes up, the town blends in a state revolving loan, or the P3 structure is the right answer.
How does this interact with a property tax abatement or PILOT?
Only in the P3 case, where the asset is privately owned and therefore taxable. A town-owned hub is exempt by definition, so the fiscal case rests on enterprise revenue and avoided cost instead. Our municipal resilience page covers the abatement math for the private-ownership path.
Do we have to commit the whole marina?
No. The hub sits on a defined parcel — typically an underused corner of the yard or the back of the dry stack — under a lease or easement. Slip operations and public access are unaffected, and the interconnection is sized so future phases can add blocks without a second study.
Talk to us
Start the conversation with your town’s numbers
Send the facility and the timeline you are working toward. We come back with a sized hub, an indicative bond structure and the incentive filings that have to land first.
Municipal marinas
Send us two years of enterprise fund statements
We return a sized hub, a revenue band, a coverage test and a recommended financing structure — no cost and no obligation, in about three weeks.
No GridLynQ block is energized yet. Every figure shown is a modelled profile of a candidate site's conditions — speculative, not measured, and not a quote or a guarantee of results.