Craig Reaves has operated heavy equipment since he was six years old, driven trucks at eleven that would require a commercial license, run cranes at thirteen, earned a pilot’s license at 23, and picked up his boat captain’s license at 47. His daughter-in-law Lawren puts it plainly: Craig can drive everything but a train. Those skills have come in handy more than once since he took over Bear Point Harbor, a full-service marina tucked into the Bear Point community of Orange Beach.
Reaves did not set out to own a marina. He grew up in Columbus, Georgia, where his family ran a fourth-generation demolition business that expanded into waste management, hazardous asbestos removal, a landfill, roll-off dumpsters, and crane rental. In 2013, living on Waterhole Branch near Fish River, he went looking for a trailer park to buy. What he found instead, in September 2016, was Bear Point Marina. “I was looking for a trailer park and ended up with a floating one,” he says. “I’ve been rebuilding and repairing ever since.”
A Mutual Job Interview on Closing Day
Reaves assumed he would inherit a staff when the purchase closed. Instead, the only person there on closing day was Sherrie Reas, who had worked at the marina under earlier ownership and happened to be hired for two days to close out the previous owner’s books. The two had never met. “It was a mutual job interview,” Reaves says. “She knew where all the bodies were buried.” Sherrie Reas has been the Dock Master at Bear Point Harbor ever since, an arrangement Reaves counts among his blessings.
The learning curve was steep even for a lifelong boater. Reaves wanted to see the marina business from the customer service side, and he leaned on a management book, Michael Gerber’s “The E-Myth Revisited,” to shape his approach: every business needs a technician, a manager, and an entrepreneur. Consistency, he says, is the key.
A Neighborhood That Shows Up
What struck Reaves most after the purchase was the community around him. Bear Point, he says, is a giving, concerned neighborhood, most of whose residents moved here from somewhere else. “It’s like Mayberry with beer.”
That was never clearer than after Hurricane Sally, when floodwater sat in the harbor for days. Reaves rented cleanup equipment, and neighbors showed up on their own to clean the restaurant, pressure-wash the docks, and haul away debris. By Sunday afternoon, the place looked ready to reopen.
The Bear Point Civic Association, with close to 900 members, owns the beach properties surrounding the marina, and Reaves describes the relationship as close and productive. The neighborhood’s signature social event, the Golf Cart Poker Crawl, sends dozens of carts on a three-hour tour through host houses, where players draw cards and hosts compete for best-decorated honors.
OSO and the Restaurant That Took Off
In 2018, Reaves approached Tyler Kean, the longtime owner of the Fairhope Inn, about opening a restaurant at the marina. “I liked his product and energy at the Fairhope Inn,” Reaves says. “Tyler operates with integrity.” The partnership became OSO at Bear Point Harbor, a coastal kitchen at 5749 Bay La Launch Avenue serving fresh local seafood, from raw oysters and gumbo to blackened snapper, with live music several nights a week and a deck facing the water. Breakfast was added to the lunch and dinner lineup after launch.
Around the restaurant, Reaves rebuilt the harbor itself. There is a new bandstand, an open bar turned to face the water, a grassy expansion, fuel and ice payable at the pump, and a Dock Store stocked with essentials. He has brought in operators offering offshore fishing charters, dolphin cruises, jet ski rentals, and sailing charters. Cold Mil Fleet Dolphin Cruises runs two boats known for the big wakes dolphins love to ride; Top Tier Water Sports handles jet skis; Sail Atlas Charters and Back Bay Sailing offer time under sail; and Power-Time Boating Club keeps a boat on site for members.
Giving Back on the Water
The marina also pitches in for causes. The week before Labor Day, Bear Point hosts a benefit fishing tournament for Children’s of Alabama, UAB’s pediatric cancer hospital, with Tyler Kean donating the food and around 20 boats participating. On football weekends, the “liveaboards,” residents who live aboard their boats at the harbor, gather for game days. The marina is dog-friendly, which the regulars consider a feature.
Reaves measures success in something other than revenue. He gets satisfaction, he says, from creating something the community enjoys. For a man who went looking for a trailer park and found a floating one, that may be the best return on investment there is.
The next time you’re in Orange Beach, the harbor is worth the detour: a bite at OSO, a dolphin cruise, live music, and a sunset that explains why the Bear Point crowd never really left.