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This is not good for the residents of Warwick specifically and Rhode Island in general. There should be legislation to require some oversight by local government to prevent an out of state ( Texas ) company from slowly creating a pricing monopoly. Local people lose. The article lays out the effect on the fisherman pretty clearly. I am a retiree who lives here because of the water access and I am being priced out also.

I personally had experience with one recent take over and subsequent huge price increase. I had been a customer at Wharf Marina and it was bought this year by Safe Harbors. I went to their office in late December and asked what to expect in the spring regarding prices. I was told that it was being discussed in Texas office and the new contracts would likely go out in March or maybe late February with the new prices. The new contract actually arrived in mid February.

I had already checked with the prices at Safe Harbors other nearby marinas and was finding that they were around $120 per foot. I found it hard to believe that the new prices would be any different. Why would they be? I also found it hard to believe that the company did not know this when I asked about it in December. When the new contract arrived in mid February the price had gone from $ 87 to $120 per foot, which is a huge increase.

I had found a new slip in January when I got the bad feeling about where this was going. However I suspected that if the other former customers did not find out about the price increase until mid February they would not be able to find new slips at that late date and would be stuck with the price increase. As I said, local people lose. I sincerely hope the Attorney General office does pursue anti trust remedies. Going forward the cities and state need to put in place oversight to prevent this.