A vacant Bath seafood cannery site that has remained dormant for decades is finding new use as winter boat storage.

The former Stinson Seafood cannery, a 5.6-acre property at 65 Bowery St., will be used for boat storage as a small step toward a much larger development, according to Sean Ireland, lead development partner with The Cannery Group, LLC. The site is in the Marine Business District, which was sold for $1.02 million in August 2023.

“It has historically been a very active and vibrant site that has been dormant for 20 years,” Ireland said.

Over the past two years, The Cannery Group has collaborated with the city, using the Brownfield Fund to conduct an environmental site assessment. The environmental studies led to the development of a Voluntary Remediation Action Plan to investigate and clean up the property.

The new business at the site, Bowery Boat, will offer trailer boat storage for the upcoming winter season, including one current tenant, the marine contractor King’s Tide Marine, according to a press release from The Cannery Group.

“There is a tremendous amount of pre-development planning and preparation that goes into a project of this nature,” Ireland said. “We are energized by the partnership we have formed with the City of Bath and the support and encouragement we have seen from the community.”

The Stinson Seafood cannery shut down in 2005, with the building burning to the ground a year later. The site has remained vacant since.