The Bay Lady is going upscale.
New DJ booths, bars and dance floors, and renovated bathrooms and dining halls will greet cocktail cruise-goers and wedding parties when they board the 450-passenger vessel later this spring. The boat's leaky steel hull will have been repaired, and fresh paint will gleam from stem to stern.
When the nearly $1 million refurbishing is complete April 24, the 20-year-old excursion boat will be rechristened the Spirit of Baltimore, the first overt sign that there's a new -- and deep-pocketed -- owner in town. The city had a dinner-cruise ship of the same name in the early 1990s that was renamed and moved to a Manhattan anchorage.
Backed by ICV Capital Partners, a $440 million New York-based private equity firm, Entertainment Cruises bought Harbor Cruises, which operated the Bay Lady and two other boats, from longtime owner Larry Stappler for $5 million last March. But the Bay Lady's new owner waited until this season to rebrand and revamp Stappler's flagship vessel with new staff, gourmet menus and furnishings.
"Everything is going to change; it's getting gutted," said Tom D'Amato, Entertainment Cruises' vice president in charge of Baltimore. "We truly bought this business for what it could be, not what it was."
The Lady Baltimore, the fleet's 350-passenger dining ship, was also dry-docked for $350,000 worth of exterior repairs this winter, D'Amato said. Its interior and that of the 75-person Prince Charming sightseeing boat will redone later, he added.
Formed through ICV Capital's 2006 merger of Spirit Cruises LLC and Premier Yachts Inc., Chicago-based Entertainment Cruises is now one of the country's largest dining boat companies, with 24 vessels in seven cities bringing in about $100 million in annual sales.
D'Amato, who oversees restaurant operations for the business, previously worked for Spirit Cruises in New York and Washington, and for Premier Yachts' high-end Odyssey line.
A boutique private equity firm, ICV Capital Partners also owns companies that make prepared foods, eyeglass accessories and car audio devices. The cruise business first caught the firm's attention while it was researching possible restaurant operators to acquire, said Lloyd M. Metz, an ICV principal.
"We saw that it had very similar characteristics to a restaurant company, with some additional benefits: great views, you don't have to be open every day, you only sail when you have customers," Metz said.
