Genius entrepreneur turned broken Ohio marina into $7,000,000 resort of floating homes

Published on Apr 12, 2026 at 4:44 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis

Last updated on Apr 09, 2026 at 6:38 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by Emma Matthews

This guy saw an opportunity and turned a forgotten marina in Ohio into a resort worth millions.

Back when he bought it, the marina was generating no more than five figures a year in revenue.

Now, it is generating seven figures.

And, more importantly, the marina is now worth millions.

This could potentially be more than a one-off

There are countless places in the world – not just in the US – where small marinas have a lot of potential.

People are naturally drawn to the water, and anything on water – including a raft – can be marketed as a boat.

If it floats and you can sit on it, people will see it through the lens of boating culture.

No one would think of a beat-up car as a particularly glamorous vehicle, but for some reason, even a raft is perceived as cool.

This guy in Ohio was clearly thinking along those lines when he decided to turn a semi-abandoned marina into a $7 million resort.

And this is how he did it.

This is how you turn a decrepit marina into a resort

A 29-year-old entrepreneur turned a dilapidated marina in a place called Sandusky, Ohio, into something called Soul Stay.

When he bought it, ‘Soul Stay’ was a $1 million marina with a lot of issues.

At the time, the decrepit marina was only generating around $20,000 in annual revenue, but Joe Lisa saw an opportunity when he realized as many as 13 million tourists visited the area each year.

He then spent around $1 million to buy the marina, and then an additional $300,000 on various things that needed fixing.

He built the first 10 units for around $10,000 each and generated $370,000 in revenue in the first year.

Clearly, the plan is working.

At the time of writing, the marina is valued at around $7 million.

So it was clearly a good idea, and obviously well executed.

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After beginning his automotive writing career at DriveTribe, Alessandro has been with Supercar Blondie since the launch of the website in 2022. In fact, he penned the very first article published on supercarblondie.com. He’s covered subjects from cars to aircraft, watches, and luxury yachts - and even crypto. He can largely be found heading up the site’s new-supercar and SBX coverage and being the first to bring our readers the news that they’re hungry for.