By ELIZABETH HAYES
Staff Reporter
The new Long Beach debuts this week, with the opening of the first major components of the city’s $300 million Queensway Bay project.
The June 19 opening of Queensway Bay Rainbow Harbor and June 20 opening of the adjacent Aquarium of the Pacific marks a defining moment for this city, as it tries to transform itself from a hard-scrabble Navy backwater into a first-class tourist destination. It is an effort the city has been working on ever since Walt Disney Co. pulled the plug on its proposed DisneySea theme park in the early 1990s.
“We’re trying to make Long Beach a regional destination make it a place people will stay the night,” said Robert Paternoster, the city’s director for the Queensway Bay project.
The project’s economic importance has taken on greater proportions in recent years, as aerospace/defense cuts have resulted in massive layoffs in the Long Beach area.
The centerpiece of the 300-acre oceanfront development is the aquarium, the fourth largest in the United States.
Rainbow Harbor, to the west of the existing Shoreline Village retail center, features nine docks for commercial vessels used for day cruises, fishing and dining charters.
Other features of Rainbow Harbor include a deepened and expanded lagoon, 2,000-foot-long waterfront esplanade, amphitheater, custom-made lamp posts, nautilus-shaped fountain, lights in portholes along the seawall for light shows and 23-acre Shoreline Park with nautically themed playground equipment.
A future component of the Queensway Bay project calls for a 500,000-square-foot retail and entertainment center with theme restaurants, movie theaters, stores and comedy and magic clubs. That $105 million component is being developed by OliverMcMillan of San Diego, and is expected to break ground by Jan. 1 of next year, Paternoster said.
Much of Queensway Bay is being funded through revenue bonds, federal highway funds and federal urban development loans. The non-profit aquarium sold $117.5 million of tax-exempt revenue bonds to be repaid from aquarium revenues.
Larry Kosmont, a redevelopment consultant, said the project affords a good variety of activities and extends the downtown experience for visitors.
“One of the things Long Beach is doing right is, they’re trying to create a sense of place,” Kosmont said. But the jury is still out on how successful a draw the aquarium will be in Southern California’s competitive environment for leisure dollars, he said.
“The aquarium project is either going to be a bellwether project that turns downtown Long Beach around or a very expensive investment without a return. The issue is, will people come back? The aquarium in the first couple of years will get good attendance because it’s new,” he said.
The aquarium features 17 major exhibit tanks and 30 smaller exhibits with 550 different species, including leopard sharks, giant sea bass, white sea bass and giant spined sea stars, as well as a seal-and-sea-lion exhibit.
Visitors will be able to take water taxis over to Shoreline Village, a shopping and entertainment center across from the Rainbow Harbor docks, said Carole Spignese, general manager of Shoreline Village. She said the village already benefits from its proximity to the Convention Center and Queen Mary. “Anything the aquarium is able to bring us is gravy,” she said.
Paternoster said the city expects to break even on the project, but reap other economic benefits.
“There’s community pride, and it’s easier to book conventions, and downtown development will proceed more rapidly; we’re already getting (proposals from developers interested in building) hotels and restaurants,” he said.
The Queensway Bay Rainbow Harbor grand opening is scheduled from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, June 19. The event and parking are free to the public. Festivities will include marching bands, jazz bands, boat rides, a light show and fireworks.
