Marita and Paul Joseph Gast were enthusiastic water sports enthusiasts, so they decided to open their own harbor over 40 years ago. In 1976, the first private marina on the Rhine was built in the former harbor basin on Weizenmühlenstraße. In 2000, a new floating facility consisting of 1.4 km of concrete jetties was built and anchored to offshore dolphins in what is now the Media Harbor. The facility glides up and down automatically depending on the water level, anchored to these steel pylons, which are anchored 10 meters deep in the harbor floor.

The roots of the old Gast merchant family date back to 1848, when Johann Josef Gast opened his first shop near Aachen. In 1958, Paul Joseph Gast took over his parents' business and, together with friends and colleagues, built the first self-service department store with an area of 3000 m² in 1970. In 1974, he turned his hobby into his profession. After visiting America, he was inspired by the idea of building a private marina in Düsseldorf.