A R$ 100 million complex over the water puts Itajaí on the blue economy map. Santa Catarina's coast gains a new value driver, and it demands more brand than floor space.
The blue economy moves from slide to site in Itajaí
Itajaí will host Brazil's first marina mall. Boulevard Marina Itajaí, announced with an initial investment of R$ 100 million, will be built next to Marina Itajaí, a complex with more than 400 berths, in partnership with ABecker Loteamentos . Delivery is scheduled for the summer of 2026/2027.
The project's figures show the size of the bet. There will be roughly 120 stores, more than 20 food and beverage operations and 500 parking spaces, across over 30,000 square meters of total area, with 12,000 square meters of leasable area . The anchor will be a premium supermarket, SuperKoch, and the plan is to generate more than a thousand direct and indirect jobs after opening. The concept is open and faces the Itajaí-Açu river, with architecture designed to talk to the water rather than turn its back on it.
The choice is no accident. Marina Itajaí recorded a 15% rise in traffic in the first quarter of 2026, a sign that demand for nautical infrastructure is growing faster than supply . When a complex of this scale decides to invest in retail and dining over the water, it is reading a deeper shift: the sea has stopped being only scenery and has become an address.
A booming global market and a bottled-up Brazil
Itajaí's move follows a worldwide trend. The global marina market is expected to reach US$ 10.51 billion in 2026, according to consultancy Business Research Insights . It is a sector that has moved beyond mooring to become a hub for leisure, dining and retail, exactly what the Santa Catarina project proposes.
In Brazil, the math is still one of untapped potential. The nautical sector accounts for R$ 12.6 billion of GDP, just 0.12% of the total, and experts estimate it could be up to 20 times larger as nautical tourism advances . The bottleneck is infrastructure. The country has around 1 million registered vessels and an estimated shortfall of 60,000 berths, with little more than a thousand regular support points .
The comparison with mature markets exposes the size of the gap.
nautical sector, 2026
While Brazil operates with roughly one support point for every 3,000 boats, Italy and Spain work with one marina for every 500 hulls . Where there is pent-up demand, there is opportunity. And Santa Catarina's coast, with its indented geography and its high-income public, is a natural candidate to fill that space before the waiting list for a berth turns into a waiting list for waterfront property.
The record summer that backs the bet
The blue economy in Santa Catarina does not rest on boats alone. It is sustained by a tourist flow that broke records. Between December 2025 and February 2026, the state received 473,500 foreign visitors, part of a movement that projected more than 3 million tourists for the season . And the profile changed: 61.3% of tourists had a household income of five minimum wages or more, and German arrivals rose 111% over the previous year .
This is the buyer who sustains a marina, a waterfront restaurant and a second home with a boat slip. Add the easing rate cycle, with the Selic benchmark at 14.25% a year after June's cut, and capital gains one more reason to migrate from fixed income to coastal assets . The result is fertile ground for those who know how to turn a meter of water into a meter of brand.
Why this is, above all, a brand decision
Here is the point that matters to developers and sellers. A marina mall, a marina or a waterfront development does not sell shelves or floor plans. It sells a way of living. The product is the experience of arriving by boat, dining over the water and belonging to an informal club of people who value the sea. That is brand territory, not a spec sheet.
When the differentiator is lifestyle, communication has to convey feeling before it conveys square meters. The development's name, the visual identity, the tone of the campaigns and the curation of the brands present weigh as much as the location. A poorly positioned nautical project becomes just another shopping center near the water. Well positioned, it becomes a destination, and a destination has pricing power.
It is also an international contest. With Argentines and Germans on the rise along the Santa Catarina coast, a brand has to work in more than one language and make sense to someone who has never heard of the city. Naming, narrative and identity designed from the start for a global audience stop being a luxury and become a condition of competitiveness. Whoever treats the brand as a finishing touch, rather than a project, hands value to the competitor who thought about it first.
The new frontier calls for a brand to match
The blue economy has left the speech and become a construction site in Itajaí. Santa Catarina's coast has the geography, the demand and the capital to lead this cycle, and Boulevard Marina is only the first visible sign of a pipeline that should grow. But infrastructure alone does not create lasting value. Those who turn these structures into desired brands, with a coherent story, identity and experience from the ad to the handover, will anchor the best public and sustain the best price. The wave has reached the Santa Catarina coast. Riding it well depends less on concrete and more on brand.
