A Santa Monica-based development team has bid $41 million to purchase the lease to the Queen Mary and its surrounding property, signalling a strong start to what could become a bidding war for the oceanfront acreage as early as this summer, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports.
O & S; Holdings has signed a non-contingency purchase agreement with Howard Ehrenberg, the bankruptcy trustee for Queen’s Seaport Development Inc., which holds the lease to the city-owned ship.
“I won’t deny that I’m very pleased with the current situation,” Ehrenberg said after issuing a press release Wednesday. “But I would prefer to hold off on being ecstatic until after the sale is approved.”
QSDI declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2005 and has been searching for a developer to take over the lease ever since.
