The Island’s only family campground, with 180 campsites and dozens of cabins and RV sites that pepper the woods in Tisbury during the summer, was acquired on Wednesday by a holding company that has a wide portfolio of campsites and resorts across the country.
Northgate Holdings, a Michigan-based holding company that Northgate Resorts operates under, purchased Martha’s Vineyard Family Campground, located at 569 Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road, this week. The news of the acquisition comes just a month after the death of longtime operator Dan Feeney, the son of the founders of the campground.
Chelsea Bossenbroek, general counsel for Northgate Resorts, told The Times that the purchasing agreement was in place before Feeney’s death.
“Northgate hopes to build on the amazing legacy of the Feeney family,” Chelsea Bossenbroek said. “We were very sorry that he passed away prior to the sale closing.”
Northgate is a family-owned company, just like the founders, Bossenbroek said. She added that the group isn’t planning on making changes to the campground for the upcoming summer season.
“Whenever Northgate acquires campgrounds, especially campgrounds that have been owned and operated by the same family in some cases, for generations, we make changes in a thoughtful way. As such, we do not have any immediate plans to make changes this season,” Chelsea Bossenbroek said.
The new ownership is the latest in a trend of the loss of locally owned businesses. Island Music, the Tisbury location of Mocha Mott’s, Phillip’s Hardware, and Grey Barn are just a few in the past year alone. Some of these closures represented a cultural shift as well as a physical one, such as Island Music, which was a hard pill to swallow for local musicians, who spoke about the implications for the music community. Others, like Linda Jean’s closure, created a gap that was recently filled by the newly established Highlands General.
Now the campground has joined these ranks, although the effect of the change in hands is yet to be seen. The Feeneys were not immediately available for comment.
“Martha’s Vineyard is one of those rare places that families return to year after year, and for decades, the Feeney family poured their hearts into building a destination that generations of campers have come to love,” Zachary Bossenbroek, and chief executive officer of Northgate Resorts, and Chelsea’s brother, said in a press release.
The M.V. Family Campground land was purchased in 1960 by Charles and Jeanne Feeney, and was officially opened to the public in 1972. Back then, it was one of three public campgrounds. In 1988, Dan Feeney took over day-to-day management from his parents. He oversaw the company until his death this March, when the campground went to the next generation, according to his obituary.
The use of the campground has varied over the years. Some Vineyarders have resided on the campsites as one response to the “Island shuffle,” a phenomenon where locals are unable to find year-round rentals and have to move out of their homes in the summer months.
For the Island specifically, hospitality is a huge economic driver, according to a 2023 statistical report from the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. In Tisbury, specifically, leisure and hospitality make up 11 percent of the establishments in the town, and employ a monthly average of 12 percent of local workers, according to commission data from 2022.
Many facets of the hospitality industry thrive primarily in the summer, especially lodging. Hotels, motels, campgrounds — even short-term rentals from individual homeowners — all peak in the warmer months.
Camping is a $66 billion industry in North America, with a swell in participation during and immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic that has remained slightly elevated since, according to a report by Kampgrounds of America, Inc., an organization that collects campground data in the U.S. and Canada.
“We are hopeful that Northgate will be a welcome addition to the Martha’s Vineyard community as the next family-owned operator and steward of this special place,” Chelsea Bossenbroek told The Times.
Campgrounds are needed, and I truly wish the new owners well. But this still marks another loss for the Island. A family-run place with history, character, and local texture is now in the hands of a national resort company. That may work on paper, but it does not preserve what made the place matter.
We have already seen this elsewhere. Linda Jean’s used to be a real hub of Oak Bluffs. Tradespeople, locals, and regulars gathered there morning, afternoon, and early evening. People knew each other’s names. Sometimes you even looked forward to seeing the same waitress. Marc was cooking. It felt warm, familiar, and alive.
The new place may be fine for what it is, but comparing the two is ridiculous. One had soul. The other is business. Efficient, maybe. Polished, maybe. But not the same.
That is what people mean when they say the good old days are gone. The campground may continue, but the local soul of it is what slips away. Martha’s Vineyard becomes a little less Martha’s Vineyard each time that happens.
The businesses may remain, but the soul is usually the first thing to go.
Well said. It would be like selling The Art Cliff Diner to International House of Pancakes. The same might be said of some aspects of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital before and after the “Transfer of Ownership” to Massachusetts General Hospital was approved by the State’s Public Health Council. That is not to say that the caliber of clinicians has declined or hasn’t, in some instances, improved, but the institution as a whole feels as though it has morphed from patient-centered to corporate-centered. In some cases, it takes going to the Patient Gateway and reading one’s own Progress Notes and Test Results to learn your health status. Always remember, you must be your own best advocate!
How does a transfer of a campground inspire such delusions ? Privacy being improved is precious too.
Highlands General is owned and operated by locals and yes it’s different from Linda Jean’s but seems pretty good. Actually the prices are way less than Linda Jeans so I’m on board with the change. Yes, it’s hard to see local control of the the campground go to a national corporation but what’s the alternative? No one on island stepped up. Just be glad it’s not another development bringing hundreds of units of housing and the traffic and additional school expenses resulting from the two projects just own the road.
Hallelujah! Paying as much a building rental without the capability of a hot shower at any time was criminal. This inevitably will be a major upgrade
On a national level.
The new corporate owners immediately put up NO TRESPASSING signs across trails that have been walked to access the Land Bank and other trails by neighbors for more than 40 years. “Martha is closed”
Private equity…
Prices will go up, services will go down, customer service will cease to exist. I see above that trails have been posted. The rich get richer, we lose part of what made us unique. A corporation of this size has one purpose -profit. All the platitudes about leaving everything the same are standard bs to keep us quiet until the squeeze starts.
Not a very good first impression. Locked gates and many bright yellow no trespassing signs blocking off access to land bank property that islanders have enjoyed for years.