I called on the phone to double check and was informed by a choked-up operator it was indeed true, it is their last day. Merrill-Stevens was the oldest continually operating business in the State of Florida. The company employed about 250 at its height in 2008 (170 at the shipyard) According to the Superintendent, Merrill Stevens has operated this year with around a 60 person staff. Speculation of closure or financial troubles along with competition from new and improved facilities has made it increasingly difficult to compete in today’s market he says. They thought they would beat the recession but couldn't. A Multi-millionaire, Miami husband-and-wife team of business and civic leaders had bought Merrill-Stevens Dry Dock Co. for an undisclosed amount, according to the South Florida Business Journal in a 2004 report:Hugh Westbrook may be best known as the Methodist minister who, in 1976, co-founded with nurse Esther Colliflower the local hospice organization that grew to become Vitas Healthcare Corp. A company now known as Chemed Corp. bought that Miami-based company in February in a $406 million deal.
12 comments:
I remember (rightly??) a couple of years ago that Merrill Stevens got control of a defunct marina from the County with a promise of skilled jobs to minorities. They were portrayed as the picture of success...it wasn't that long ago. They promised a lot of jobs. What is going to happen with that other parcel? Katy Sorenson's office should remember this. Barbara Jordan was the biggest supporter and Audrey Edmonson. Does the county ever check on the promises made to them? Burgess do you ever double check on "promise feasibility" or on "promises fulfilled"? They got a good deal on a promise...now what?
I remember free development rights too.
"They got a good deal on a promise...now what?"
They are going bust, what do you want to do, pick over the carcass? The thing I find so amazing is that they can go from their best year ever in 2008 to bust in 2009. Not exactly a picture of financial management excellence.
Steve: Stackhouse got a few million on a PROMISE. We have got to stop with accepting PROMISES at face value. The Marlins also PROMISED to hire local firms...all these PROMISES must be vetted. It is not picking over the carcass, it is learning from our mistakes.
Wow.
The lobbyists for the failed Watson Island project, called Island Gardens, are begging for permission to build a mega boat marina. Flagstone developers are almost five months behind on their rent to their site landlord. They were already evicted from their office space. It appears the big recreational boat business is not that strong.
I hear the criticism for this shipyard employing Floridians as long as they could and now they are hit... the yacht business which is owrth billions to the community at large is in shambles... Do you actually think Westbrook made money? The county is lucky to have had him invest his well earned money in such a risky business in such a risky venture. So if you people criticising the effort have a better idea and can make it worthwhile then go right a haed ........... or shut up.
Last person who doesn't know how to read:
No one is criticizing the boatyard or the owners. So where ever you are "hearing criticism" it ain't here. This was straight reporting. Read it again.
You should inquire how many VPs they had and what their experience was. Too many people with titles and no actual output for their beefy salaries...Talk about hemorhaging at the top level. You may also inquire as to the quality of work performed and the service provided once the recent owners took over.
What talent to buy, expand and wreck a business (not to mention the 3 companies they aquired)that has been around since the 1800s! Just because one owns a boat does not mean one knows the business.
The state of the economy is not to blame for thier demise, it only helped it along more quickly.
I remember Merrill Stevens in its heydays, back in 1966, when I first worked for them. Old Jesse Fraser was the carpentry foreman then, as good a foreman as you would want. He had taken over for Frank Neunam who had gone over to Allied Marine, another boat yard now long gone and one that I also have very fond memories of. I was sixteen at the time and got to work there only because my father also worked at Merrill Stevens as a boat carpenter and he lied about my age, (told Jesse that I was eighteen).
I n those days Merrill Stevens was a good place to work if you where a young man wanting to learn as much as you could about boats. Jack Spencer, a good friend of my father, was the General Manager and he did question my father too much about my age and so for the duration of the season I worked and learned with the best boat carpenter at Merrill, a gentleman by the name of Gabriel Romeu. Romeu had own a high end furniture factory in Cuba and had lost all he owned but had kept all he knew and was not above sharing his knowledge with a young kid.
Another that made a big impression on me at the time was a little guy by the name of Dickey (in all the years I knew him I never learn his full name) an old hand that had grown up onboard boats and had been a ship master in the fishing schooners fleet in Cuba’s northern coast. What he lacked in learning (he could not read or write) he more than made up both intelligence and a natural nobility and kindness. He was the best marlin spike man I ever saw anywhere, had this trick he would do of tying a square knot inside a bottle that still has me wondering how he did it.
So many others I still remember, just like Merrill Stevens, all now gone…
Those of you that never worked there can have your opinions as to why the place failed in the end. Perhaps it all begun when those that were trusted by the Merrills to look after their Company figure out that by not spending any money in upkeep they could make the bottom line look even better than it was so their bonuses at the end of the year would be better. Or maybe it was when the same toads started taking the money from sale of the scrap metal the workers scrounge together to pay for the Christmas Party (who can forget Romanoffky, the head of the pipefitters, and his pork steam in beer) and kept it. Or maybe it was when the last of the Merrills to run the place, in name at least, became more interested in being known as a “theater director” than as the last in a long line of boatyard owners.
In the end all I know is that Merrill Stevens has now joined the list of those yard that are gone; Miami Beach Ship Yard, Miami Ship Yard, Ridder Yachts, Florida Yacht Basin, Allied Marine, Tamiami Marine, Andy Mortesen’s Yard.
I will miss it like I miss all my old friends that are gone and, though I don’t miss the hard dirty work that was yacht repairs, I will miss the watching of the annual migration of the manatees up the river, the mullets jumping out of the water, the looking into the Yard to see who of the “Big Boats” was in…
Adrian Villaraos
Thanks Adrian, you just made post of the week...
One has to wonder whether the employment of family members and employees that worked at firms that Westbrook formerly owned - along with their robust salaries - had anything to do with the demise of the boatyard. I mean, they had Vice Presidents that had no training in the field. How can one succeed?
Adrian.....you were at merrill stevens waaay before my time but I can tell you that Dickie was there well into the mid-1990's.
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