After several years of planning and designs, elected officials in Gulf Shores, along with representatives from Sunders Yachtworks of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach and White-Spunner Construction, met on Friday to official break ground on a new dry dock boat basin.

Construction will begin Monday on the basin, docks, and heavy-lift infrastructure components, located on 14 acres owned by the City of Gulf Shores and the Airport Authority. It is expected to take 15 months to complete the project.

“This project has been a very long time in the making,” said Andrew Saunders, Jr., company chairman of Saunders Yachtworks, who explained the specifics of what would take place once the project is completed. “We are a full-service boat yard. That means we are going to employ all the crafts and traits to do any system on the boats, from bow to stern.”

Saunders said the company has already doing this type work at their Orange Beach location since 1995, but is limited to vessels up to 65-feet long.

“This yard will be for vessels up to 120-foot, and 150 tons, so we will be three times the tonnage and twice the length of the type of vessel that we can service.”

White-Spunner Construction of Mobile was awarded the $5.144 million contract to build the project, which will include 965 feet of water frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway.

“We are thrilled to have been selected to construct this exciting new dry dock basin for the City of Gulf Shores and Saunders Yachtworks,” said Seth Smith, project manager for White-Spunner Construction. “This visionary undertaking will create many new jobs as well as stimulate the local economy for years to come.”

It is expected that the new dry dock basin will create approximately 180 construction jobs during the 15-month construction period.

Saunders, a 52-year-old, family-owned company with annual sales of $7 million, currently employs 45 full-time employees at its Orange Beach location, and estimates it will add 25 new jobs within two years of opening the Gulf Shores facility.

Saunders said that once the Gulf Shores facility is completed, there is no plan to do away with the Orange Beach location.

“We have a long-term lease on that yard, we will continue to operate it, and this will almost be like a big brother, small brother proposition over time.”

According to Saunders, customers for the boat yard will include private recreational users such as sport fishermen and cruisers, governmental and military boats, and vessels in the commercial industry as well.

The City of Gulf Shores ultimately will contribute $1.1 million of matching funds to the project representing a total infrastructure investment of $5.9 million. Saunders Yachtworks already has invested $3.6 million in the Gulf Shores project including land and construction costs. Saunders completed a 15,000-square-foot headquarters on the site in 2009 that includes shops, warehouses and offices. They plan to invest another $1.2 million for dry dock machinery and lift equipment.

Mayor Robert Craft said that since his administration took over, they have been looking for ways to diversify the economic base of the community to get away from relying only on tourism, as well as geographic strength from businesses that are not on the beach.

“We don’t want to be so dependent on just the Gulf of Mexico because we have seen just how fragile that can be in a lot of different circumstances,” said Craft. “The future of this city, to be stable, needs exactly this kind of thing.”

Craft referred to Saunders as a bulldog, calling the concept the right project with the right people that would be complimentary to tourism.

“This had to have somebody that would make it happen. Once he got a hold of this concept and got us convinced that it was good, we knew that we had a guy that we could partner with that would make it happen, and that is why we are here today.”

Craft said the project was a step forward for the community and the future of Gulf Shores.