ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — A planned $27.5 million sale involving Cat’s Paw Marina and surrounding waterfront property in St. Augustine has become the subject of a legal dispute after the reported death of developer Gayle Bulls Dixon, a central figure in the marina’s ownership and expansion.
According to reporting by the St. Johns Citizen, citing a complaint filed in St. Johns County Circuit Court, Garnet Thor Properties LLC is challenging aspects of the proposed transaction and is asking the court to protect assets and require a full accounting of money invested in the project. The lawsuit alleges Garnet Thor has approximately $3 million invested and could receive little or nothing from the proposed sale as currently structured.
The dispute adds a significant new chapter to one of St. Augustine’s larger waterfront redevelopment projects.
What is being sold?
Cat’s Paw Marina is located at 220 Nix Boat Yard Road along the San Sebastian River, less than a mile from the Intracoastal Waterway. The marina currently provides dry and transient boat storage, fuel, marine services and access to the Grouper Shack restaurant.
The properties involved in the broader development are held through several related companies, including BDEP Cat’s Paw LLC, BDEP Freedom LLC and BDEP Land LLC. Florida corporate records currently list all three entities as active.
According to the lawsuit as reported by the Citizen, Gayle Dixon signed an agreement on Feb. 2, 2026, to sell most of the properties to Alliance Marine Development LLC for a combined $27.5 million.
The reported allocation was:
$19 million for property associated with BDEP Cat’s Paw and $8.5 million for property associated with BDEP Freedom.
The contract reportedly called for the transaction to close by Sept. 11, 2026. As of Sept. 16, it remained publicly unclear whether the transaction had actually closed.
Alliance Marine describes its development division as a company that acquires and develops waterfront assets and works on marina and mixed-use waterfront projects. Its broader portfolio includes marine properties around the country, including the St. Augustine Marine Center.
Why is an investor challenging the deal?
The central issue raised by Garnet Thor is not simply the $27.5 million sale price. It is how that money would allegedly be divided among the companies and their debts.
According to figures cited in the complaint, BDEP Cat’s Paw owed approximately $13.5 million, while BDEP Freedom's debt had increased to nearly $14 million as of June 30, including accrued interest and late fees.
The lawsuit alleges that a preliminary closing statement showed roughly $8 million going to Freedom and then being consumed by debt.
Garnet Thor contends the remaining Freedom debt could roughly equal the value of property that was not included in the sale, potentially leaving its investors without equity remaining after the transaction.
At the same time, the complaint alleges the $19 million allocated to Cat’s Paw would exceed that company's stated debt by approximately $5.5 million.
Those are claims made by the plaintiff and have not yet been adjudicated by a court.
Garnet Thor is asking for access to financial records and a detailed accounting of how investment money was received, transferred and spent among the related companies. It is also seeking to stop the sale or have proceeds preserved while the dispute is resolved. As an alternative, it has asked the court to consider appointing an independent receiver to oversee Freedom and its assets.
Dixon’s reported death complicates the dispute
Another unusual element of the case is the reported death of Gayle Bulls Dixon.
The complaint states that Dixon died on or about Aug. 12, 2026. The St. Johns Citizen reported that it had not independently confirmed her death at the time of its Sept. 16 report.
Dixon had played a prominent role in the Cat’s Paw redevelopment.
Company materials previously identified her as the founder and managing partner of Bulls Dixon Companies and one of the people leading the marina expansion. A 2024 announcement named Dixon along with partners Bill and Cameron Dixon in connection with the project.
According to the lawsuit, her death has now created questions about who has authority to manage BDEP Freedom and carry out the proposed transaction.
The complaint also alleges that when financial information was requested, counsel for Freedom said some of the requested records were believed to be stored on Dixon's computer and could not be accessed.
Cat’s Paw was in the middle of a major expansion
The dispute comes after several years of ambitious plans for the property.
Bulls Dixon Equity Partners, through BDEP Cat’s Paw LLC, bought the existing Cat’s Paw Marina for $6 million in December 2020. Early plans called for approximately $11 million in renovations and expansion.
Those plans later grew considerably.
By 2024, the company announced that it had acquired another 11.5 waterfront acres, bringing the project to approximately 20 acres.
Plans called for expanding Cat’s Paw from a 178-boat dry-stack marina to a facility capable of storing as many as 500 boats, with approximately 114,000 square feet of boat-storage buildings, additional transient dock space, commercial space and other waterfront improvements.
The St. Augustine Planning and Zoning Board considered a major expansion of the Cat’s Paw Planned Unit Development in June 2024 involving roughly 19.9 acres and several parcels along Nix Boat Yard Road.
The project also received substantial financing. Growth Lending announced a $9.9 million USDA bridge loan intended to help acquire additional property and advance the expansion while longer-term financing was being completed.
Construction officially broke ground in November 2024, with project representatives describing plans for expanded storage, a restaurant and transient docks connected to a new public boat-ramp area.
Some Cat’s Paw-area land has also been marketed for sale
There is another piece of the property's recent history worth watching.
Three waterfront parcels within the Cat’s Paw Marina PUD totaling approximately 4.23 acres were marketed for sale in 2026 with asking prices totaling about $4.45 million.
The parcels were advertised for potential commercial, hospitality, restaurant, retail or mixed-use development.
Those listings should not automatically be assumed to be the same parcels discussed in the Garnet Thor lawsuit. They do, however, illustrate the considerable amount of waterfront real estate assembled around the marina development.
What happens next?
For now, the most important questions remain unresolved.
The court could be asked to determine who has authority to act for the companies following Dixon's reported death, whether Garnet Thor is entitled to the financial records it is requesting, whether the proposed distribution of sale proceeds can proceed and whether an injunction or receiver is warranted.
There is also the basic question of whether the $27.5 million transaction has already closed.
Until additional deeds, court filings or company announcements appear, the ownership picture may remain unclear.
Residents can follow civil cases and related filings through the St. Johns County Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller. StJohnsFL.org also has a detailed guide explaining the Clerk's court-record services and locations. StJohnsFL.org’s guide to the St. Johns County Clerk’s Office
Why the Cat’s Paw case matters locally
This is more than a dispute among investors.
The property sits along an important stretch of the San Sebastian River, and the marina expansion has involved annexation, zoning changes, city approvals, major private financing and plans for additional marine and commercial development.
Cat’s Paw's expansion was promoted partly as a response to St. Johns County's rapid population growth and increased demand for boat storage and waterfront access. Growth Lending likewise cited growing marine demand in the county when announcing its financing.
The outcome of the sale and lawsuit could therefore help determine who ultimately controls one of St. Augustine's most significant marina-development sites — and what happens to the larger redevelopment plan.
StJohnsFL.org will update this story as additional court filings, ownership records or information about the proposed sale become available.
Editor’s note: Claims regarding the proposed sale, company debts, financial allocations, investor funds and management authority are allegations contained in or attributed to a civil complaint and have not been determined by a court. StJohnsFL.org has not independently confirmed Dixon's reported death.