While the Queen Mary won’t be setting sail again, there are big plans for the ocean liner as well as Queensway Bay where it’s docked in Long Beach.
The leasehold rights to the venerable ocean liner and the surrounding bay front area in Long Beach have been put up for sale.
The city envisions the new owner will build a large mixed-use development including a hotel and a variety of retail. The ship will be a key part of the redevelopment, although its exact fate is unclear.
“The Queen Mary is going to stay there it is an icon,” said Tom Olson of Coldwell Banker Commercial, who is representing the sale of the property with several other Coldwell brokers. “The ship would be an integral part of a new development.”
The property is expected to fetch in excess of $40 million for a 54-year lease and the right to build in the Queen’s Seaport Development area.
Pat West, director of community development for the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency, said that the city of Long Beach considers the sale of the property “an exciting opportunity to add more value to the city.”
“Everyone is at the table and everyone wants to make sure we get the best thing for the city of Long Beach,” West said.
Queen’s Seaport Development Inc. holds the lease and the development rights for the property. The company, which is headed by founder and chief executive Joseph Prevratil, filed for bankruptcy reorganization in 2005, after becoming embroiled in a dispute with the city over rent credits. The Queen’s Seaport Development leasehold rights are being sold as part of a settlement agreement approved in federal bankruptcy court on Jan. 30.
Leasehold rights include the famed 71-year-old ship, which contains a hotel and tourist attractions, and 76 acres of land and water rights. Parking lots, oil pumpers and a dome that once housed Howard Hughes’ mammoth airplane, the Spruce Goose, currently occupy the site. New features could include a luxury hotel, retail, restaurants and other entertainment components.
Last year the property was appraised at $48 million and Olson said that he and his colleagues already have fielded calls from interested parties. He said the property is being marketed at “national and international” developers.
“This by any stretch is a major opportunity for a world class mixed-use development,” Olson said.
The Queensway Bay Planned Development Plan provides a framework for development of the area and West said that guidelines will ensure potential buyers that they know what can be done with the site “so they don’t blindly bid on this with a product that wouldn’t be acceptable.”
It is unclear exactly what role the Queen Mary might play in the development. The city of Long Beach owns the historic ship. The development plan would allow for 750 hotel rooms on site and the ship already has a 365-room hotel.
“We would want the bidder to recognize the importance of the Queen Mary to Long Beach and establish adjacent land uses to support the ship’s ongoing and future restoration,” West said.
The city supports a development that capitalizes on other existing assets in the area, like the Spruce Goose geodesic dome, West added. He said that the city is also interested in the use of sustainable building practices including solar and renewable energy sources at the future development.
Launched in 1936, the Queen Mary was a Cunard White Star Line ocean liner that sailed from Southhampton in the United Kingdom to New York before it was retired in 1967 and permanently anchored in Long Beach. The ship was used to transport troops during World War II.
