The operator of the ex-Cunard Queen Mary has filed for bankruptcy raising concerns about the future of the converted luxury liner that has served as a tourist attraction and hotel in Long Beach, CA since 1972. The converted ship is owned by the City of Long Beach and has been managed by Eagle Hospitality, ex-Urban Commons, since 2016.
The Long Beach Post notes that this isn’t the first time a Queen Mary operator has filed for bankruptcy. A series of companies have failed to make the century-old ocean liner and its surrounding area profitable since it arrived in Long Beach in 1967.
The Eagle Hospitality bankruptcy extends well beyond the Queen Mary, however. More than two dozen hotels and other properties, including the Queen Mary, listed as entities under Singapore-based Eagle Hospitality Trust filed for bankruptcy on Monday in Delaware court with a total of more than $500 million debt, according to court records obtained by the Post.
The filing comes as Eagle Hospitality has seen major financial problems since it halted trading on Singapore Stock Exchange in 2019 following a notice of default on a $341 million loan from Bank of America.
There are serious concerns about the condition of the converted ship. In August 2019, Edward Pribonic, the engineer responsible for inspecting Queen Mary on behalf of the City of Long Beach, issued a report stating that the ship was in the worst condition he had seen in his 25 years on the job. Pribonic stated that the neglect of Queen Mary had grown worse under the management of Urban Commons, and concluded that “without an immediate and very significant infusion of manpower and money, the condition of the ship will likely soon be unsalvageable.”
The Queen Mary has been closed to the public since May 7 due to the pandemic.
The owner is the City of Long Beach. They bear the ultimate responsibility. It seems governments like to have no blame for anything. This is just one more failure in a long sad line of failures by government.
What did they expect letting the ownership go to Singapore, its obvious that’s where all the revenue is going to go as well. Time to start investigating whether any of the staff of Long Beach City acquired some unexplained wealth at the time of the sale.
Hmm… ship owner and ownership, anyone know how the term came about.
My father, 95, still fully independent and sharp as a tack remembers getting soaked on a very rainy day as he watched Queen Mary being launched. He also remembers her transiting the narrow river to the open sea where she briefly ran aground and her doing trials off his home on the Ayrshire Coast. He also tells me the original propellers were of some revolutionary design, pardon the pun, but were replaced in Southampton immediately after her first transatlantic return trip.
Construction was stopped during the great depression and he remembers that the ship was painted with red lead to try and prevent corrosion.
The larger question is whether the project is viable. Blaming the government is silly. The current manager is at least the fifth private developer, including Disney, that has attempted to make the old ship pay her way. So far, the project has been a public/private failure.