Proposal is floated to return the Queen Mary to the high seas

By Louis Sahagun

April 30, 2009 12 AM PT

The idea being pitched to Long Beach by a small Las Vegas entertainment company is extraordinarily ambitious, if not downright outlandish: Renovate and restore the Queen Mary and return her to sail the oceans of the world.

Cairngorm Entertainment Group is backing the Queen’s Project, an organization that is soliciting funds for the proposal it estimates could cost as much as $1.5 billion and require at least four years of dry-dock restorations.

It would be a new venture for Cairngorm, which specializes in distributing vintage movies and television shows such as “Ozzie and Harriet” and “Love That Bob!” for broadcast on cable channels.

Surveying the ship, which has been docked in Long Beach Harbor for nearly 42 years, Robert Sides III, president and chief executive of the project, asked, “Can you imagine the grandeur of seeing her sail into harbor?”

Sides said he believes the ship is worth tens of millions of dollars, adding, “With that money, the city could pay off its deficit and then some.”

That kind of talk has attracted considerable attention at Long Beach City Hall, where some regard the Queen Mary -- a floating tourist complex featuring an on-board hotel, restaurants and exhibits -- as a questionable city asset.

The city bought the Queen Mary in 1967 from Cunard Steamship Co. Ltd. But the ship and roughly 45 acres of contiguous, undeveloped oceanfront surrounding it are controlled by New York-based Garrison Investment Group under a 66-year lease agreement.

Garrison officials declined to comment on its plans for the Queen Mary and surrounding property.

But Councilman Patrick O’Donnell, who met with Sides’ group a month ago, said, “I’m not dismissing any potential revival of the ship.

“It is clear that there is a perception that the asset is not as viable as predicted,” he said. “So I’m open to change.”

Josh Butler, chief of staff for Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske, said, “Everyone knows the Queen Mary is not in the condition she used to be.” Schipske met with Sides’ group two weeks ago.

In an interview, Tim Cook, president and chief executive of Cairngorm, said: “The Queen Mary is in disrepair. She is at that stage in life when she could implode at any moment. Instead of rivets, nuts and bolts, she is held together by crustaceans.”

Cook said his assessment was drawn from city-sponsored surveys of the ship’s condition conducted in 1992, which identified numerous problems, including serious corrosion to hull plating, rivets and structures.

However, a marine engineering survey conducted at the time indicated that “no structural failure was observed and the ship is not in imminent danger of catastrophic failure.”

Still, there are many formidable hurdles to fulfilling what Sides, 26, called his lifelong dream of making the Queen Mary luxurious and seaworthy again.

They include an agreement between Long Beach and Cunard prohibiting the Queen Mary from being used for trade at sea or as a commercial cruise line, according to Deputy City Atty. Charles Parkin.

Beyond that, “we anticipate that our tenant, Garrison, will come forward with plans of its own for improvements on the ship and on the property,” Parkin said. “Therefore, I’m not saying it is impossible for the Queen Mary to sail again, but . . . “

Cook dismissed those concerns. “Yes, this is a brand new venture for us,” he said. “But remember, Google started out in a garage.”

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