Taking the Plunge

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Uwe Roggenthien likes the view from the Queen Mary’s bridge.

Employed by a company that oversees major tourist attractions worldwide, he recently took over as general manager of the historic ship, an iconic but troubled hotel and restaurant venue in Long Beach harbor.

In fact, the new captain hopes to turn the big ship around.

“We’re used to managing special places,” said Roggenthien who works for Delaware North Cos. based in Buffalo, N.Y.

The Queen Mary is certainly that. A historic ship that once ferried glamorous and famous passengers across the Atlantic, it is moored in Long Beach Harbor, offering paying guests about 300 hotel rooms, several onboard restaurants, ballrooms, meeting spaces, retail shops, a bar and a wedding chapel.

But the ship has had a hard time making a profit.

Delaware North, which assumed day-to-day operations of the city-owned attraction Sept. 28, hopes to change that by attracting more visitors there. It plans to remodel the Queen Mary’s three restaurants, add a bevy of special events, improve historic interpretive tours and do heavy online promotion.

With more than 50,000 employees worldwide and annual revenues in excess of $2 billion, the company has lots of experience managing major attractions such as Yosemite and Sequoia national parks; the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex near Orlando, Fla.; and hospitality and food services at London’s Wembley Stadium.

But even Delaware North – the latest and largest in a long line of Queen Mary operators with ambitious plans that never materialized – may be rowing upstream.

The company was hired to replace longtime manager Hostmark Hospitality Group of Schaumburg, Ill., after a group of investors called Save the Queen defaulted on a loan payment in January. That left the ship in the hands of its primary lender, Garrison Investment Group, based in New York. Save the Queen had purchased the long-term lease for $43 million in 2007 after the Queen Mary’s previous leaseholder, Queen’s Seaport Development Inc., went bankrupt two years earlier.

In fact, the recent turbulence is only the latest chapter in a history of unfulfilled promise that has long vexed city officials. One council member, reacting to what the press had dubbed “Long Beach’s floating white elephant,” even suggested at one point that someone “leave the keys in the ignition.”

Ambitious plans

City Manager Patrick West said he’s more optimistic now.

West said Garrison promised to spend $5.3 million – $4.5 million before the end of this year – on improvements to the parking lots, guest rooms, salons and other shipboard attractions, which it is doing.

However, the company has not moved forward with any plans to develop about 45 acres surrounding the ship, an idea that Save the Queen had first talked about before the financial crisis and collapse of the housing market.

But with the new management team on board, West said, he expects the venue to succeed. “Delaware North is a huge firm. We are very optimistic and excited about the changes they are implementing.”

Among specific changes being contemplated or under way, Roggenthien said, is a possible ice-skating rink and strolling minstrels on deck for the holidays, new paint and carpeting in the restaurants emphasizing historic themes, more historically detailed and accurate tours, and a “more consistent” events schedule featuring concerts and cultural events.

Bruce Baltin, a senior vice president at PKF Consulting in downtown Los Angeles, said Delaware North was a good choice to manage the ship, but any renovation that would make a difference would have to be substantial.

“Delaware North has pretty good credentials for this sort of thing, but with the Queen Mary it’s really a question of doing enough to bring it up to current standards,” said Baltin. “There’s a place in the market for the Queen Mary, or something like it, but it’s a big ship and needs lots of work.”

Andy Kwon, vice president of Garrison, said he believes the capital investment along with Delaware North’s management will be successful.

The city is certainly hoping so. The Queen Mary pays Long Beach $25,000 a month rent, plus 3 percent to 5 percent of the income generated from venues, including the hotel, parking and concessions. Last year that total amounted to about $325,000.

“They’re not going to break even any time soon, but they’re doing better than I would have anticipated in this economy,” said Victor Grgas, the city’s property bureau manager who oversees the Queen Mary. “They’re still operating at a loss, no question about it. But they’re doing as well as could be expected and, with Delaware North’s future plans, they may do better yet.”

If so, it could be the first time.

Storied history

Launched in 1936 as the flagship of the storied Cunard fleet of ocean liners, the Queen Mary was about to be mothballed when it was purchased for $3.45 million in 1967 by Long Beach, which transformed it into a floating hotel.

But the venue was slow to pay for itself. Hoping to generate tourist interest, the city built the world’s largest geodesic dome next to the ship in 1983 to house Howard Hughes’ famous Spruce Goose airplane, featured in “The Aviator,” a 2004 film. For a time, the venue was operated by the Walt Disney Co., which briefly considered building an amusement park there.

But the swell of tourists never materialized, causing the airplane to be moved to an Oregon museum in 1992, Disney to abandon its lease and the ship to be closed for a time. Should that ever happen again, West said it would be a bitter loss.

“The Queen Mary is incredibly important to Long Beach,” he said. “It’s like the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Statue of Liberty in New York. This is our icon.”

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