A commercial development on Front Street is planned primarily as an expansion of an existing marine repair business with a bar and restaurant as options, the manager of the project said this week.

“The focus is on how to make Canal Marine a better functioning facility,” with additional staging area and indoor room for work on boats, said Greg Schlachter, manager for Front Street LLC. The corporation is seeking a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit for filling 1.16 acres of tidelands there to make room for the development.

The bar and restaurant idea grew out of “brainstorming” for development options to include in the project, including office/retail space, Schlachter said in an interview. The development also may offer boat storage and improvements to the existing Oceanside RV Park, he said.

The corporation has “an initial site plan” but what’s built depends on the footprint of the property and that won’t be decided until the Corps takes action on the permit request. “We don’t want to get the cart in front of the horse.”

As the Front Street corridor becomes more of an artery with development of the borough boat harbor, a larger site pad will help alleviate bottlenecks, Schlachter said. Toward the same end, the company is looking at the potential for using the sport ramp there to move vessels north of the Lighthouse Restaurant and to the expanded marine facility along the beach, instead of taking vessels out into Front Street, Schlachter said.

Schlachter said the company is hoping to have fill in place by this time next year. That would be followed by expansion of Canal Marine and architectural drawings and planning of a new facility.

Schlachter said the company will keep business managers Joyce and Kerry Town, who lease Canal Marine and Oceanside RV Park “in the loop.”

“We’ll keep it as convenient for the tenants as we can, for them to keep their business and succeed,” he said. “We’re not starting a competitive business. This is improving their business.”

Schlachter said the company also is “very interested” in incorporating into the development’s design a public right-of-way through the property that might link to a talked-about waterfront trail along Portage Cove.

He said he hoped to hear from the Corps of Engineers on the permit by the end of May.