Backers Happy to Get More Time to Save the Queen Mary : Entertainment: The Harbor Department will cover Disney’s projected losses of $2 million through the end of the year.
LONG BEACH — Some supporters of the Queen Mary ocean liner rejoiced this week over an agreement to keep most of the tourist attraction open until the end of the year, and preservationists began organizing in support of the vessel.
The Walt Disney Co. will continue to run the ship’s tours, restaurants, shops and exhibits under the agreement approved Monday by the Board of Harbor Commissioners. Disney has operated the tourist attraction since 1988.
But the ship’s 365-room hotel and its banquet facilities will be closed at the end of September.
The Harbor Department will cover about $2 million in losses that the ship is projected to incur through the end of the year, said Richard D. Steinke, the harbor’s director of properties.
Queen Mary supporters hope the agreement will buy enough time for Long Beach to find another operator. The Harbor Department, which has jurisdiction over the ship, is advertising in international publications for a new operator or buyer for the ship.
A contingent of Queen Mary employees congratulated each other after the vote, even though about 40% of the attraction’s 1,100 workers are expect to lose their jobs at the end of September.
“We hope another operator will come in and run the whole operation,†said Bud Rymer, a union official representing most of the employees. “If we didn’t get this much, we’d be a ghost ship.â€
But not everyone was happy with the agreement.
David L. Hauser, president of the Board of Harbor Commissioners, said he does not like the idea of spending harbor money to pay for the ship’s operating losses through the end of the year.
Hauser said he voted for the agreement because a City Council majority wants to keep the ship open at least for the time being. The harbor commissioners are appointed by Mayor Ernie Kell and approved by the City Council.
“If it strictly had been up to David Hauser, I would have said no,†Hauser said. “I like things to pay for themselves.â€
Disney decided to abandon the attraction after losing as much as $10.8 million a year.
In an effort to boost falling attendance, officials will drop admission and parking rates at the Queen Mary beginning Oct. 1. Admission will drop from $10 to $8, and parking will fall from $5 to $3.
The Board of Harbor Commissioners will decide the ship’s fate in the next few months. In October, a consultant is scheduled to issue a report on how the city can best develop its oceanfront property, with or without the Queen Mary.
City officials are divided on what to do with the ship.
Kell and Hauser favor getting rid of the ship and developing a quaint marketplace, a cruise terminal or other development that would create more jobs and taxes.
Supporters of the ship, including Councilmen Ray Grabinski and Warren Harwood, would like to see the ship remain in Long Beach.
One barrier is the Queen Mary’s condition. It needs $27 million in repairs and maintenance over the next five years, an investment that is likely to discourage potential operators.
Because of those high costs, a consultant found that the Queen Mary could be made profitable only if it were turned into an entertainment center featuring a high-grossing card casino. City officials have not endorsed the idea, but on Tuesday the City Council instructed City Atty. John R. Calhoun to draft an ordinance that would allow Long Beach voters to authorize gambling on the ship. The council is expected to vote next week to place the measure on the November ballot.
Preservationists have also begun looking for ways to help keep the ship in Long Beach. The Long Beach Heritage Coalition, a local nonprofit group, recently received a $2,400 matching grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to help keep the Queen Mary in Long Beach.
Pamela Seager, president of the local coalition, said her group plans to use the money to host a forum that will bring together city and port officials, preservationists and consultants to study ways to save the ship.
“We really want it fully studied and explored,†Seager said. “People have to want to make it work.â€
Courtney Damkroger of the Washington-based group that awarded the grant, called the Queen Mary “remarkable.â€
“I think that the Queen Mary is an outstanding resource. I’ve never seen a ship with as much detail intact,†Damkroger said.
The preservationists also want to keep the Spruce Goose, the world’s largest aircraft, under its dome next to the Queen Mary, but that is not likely. Negotiations for the sale of the aircraft, built by the late billionaire Howard Hughes, are under way with an aviation company in Oregon.
The Aero Club of Southern California, which owns the Spruce Goose, expects to sign an agreement with Evergreen International Aviation Inc. by this weekend, said Aero Club spokesman William A. Schoneberger.
Schoneberger said earlier this week that he had not been contacted by preservationists.
Times community correspondent Kirsten Lee Swartz contributed to this report.
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