A New Boathouse Operator: Who Got Played?

Guest Services, Inc., which took over operations this year at Georgetown’s Key Bridge Boathouse (the former Jack’s Boathouse) from Boating in D.C., will honor the previous owner’s season passes. Good to know that there will be some gesture of continuity regarding this Potomac River facility next to Key Bridge.

The Boston-based Boating in D.C. took over Jack’s Boathouse in 2013 after owner Paul Simkin was forced out in 2013, following a public battle with the National Park Service. Having the support of Council member Jack Evans and many others, Simkin did not leave quietly. He still questions the Park Service decision.

In December 2012, Simkin, a former Georgetown Media Group employee, told The Georgetowner: “The Jack’s Boathouse family is heartbroken that after 70 years on the same location, we are told in a form letter that we must be out by 30 days. … Last summer was the best summer we ever had in D.C. at the boathouse with our business booming and our customers happy. We were brought into the National Park Service offices and assured a minimum of a three-year contract — and then to be told this now is just devastating.”

At it turns out, the Fairfax-based Guest Services is a longtime favorite vendor to the NPS. It started in 1917 as a private company, “originally founded to provide dining services to government agencies in Washington, D.C.”
It sure looks like the company was itching to take over the Jack’s space for years — and it still doesn’t seem fair to Simkin or Boating in D.C. We have a funny feeling that somebody got played.