Port of L.A. Woos 2 Cruise Ships, Tells Princess Louise to Shove Off

The cruise ship Princess Louise--a floating restaurant anchored at the Port of Los Angeles for two decades--is being forced to shove off, but two new vessels are on the way to provide dinner cruises on the harbor.

Port officials said they offered the restaurant’s berth to one of the new vessels--a 600-passenger ship to be christened “Spirit of Los Angeles”--because they don’t believe the Princess Louise is financially sound. The restaurant filed for protection from its creditors under federal bankruptcy laws in April.

Meanwhile, a San Francisco company is about to sign an agreement with the port to bring a 1,000-passenger ship to a berth being developed for dinner cruises at the new World Cruise Center.

Both ships are under construction and are expected to arrive at the port next spring; the Princess Louise, which is no longer a functional ship, has until Jan. 15 to be towed from its berth.

News of the two major dinner-cruise vessels created a stir this week. Small cruise operators at Ports O’Call Village complained that the port was flooding the market and that big ships--based closer to the Harbor Freeway--would take away their customers and business from other Ports O’Call merchants. One small cruise operator, whose company is called “Spirit Cruises,” said he is not worried about competition but about confusion over names.

In addition, the president of Hornblower Yachts, the San Francisco company negotiating for the World Cruise Center berth, complained that he thought he would be the only major dinner-cruise operator in the port. Port officials said they had no obligation to tell him they were also negotiating with his primary competitor.

Princess Louise owner Marion Perkov, meanwhile, was tight-lipped about the future of the 67-year-old cruise ship, which many San Pedro residents fondly regard as a part of the community.

Perkov sat silently Wednesday while the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners voted unanimously to transfer the lease for the Princess Louise’s berth to the owners of the Spirit of Los Angeles.

“I’m here to learn as much as you are,” Perkov told a reporter, declining further comment.

No Say in Transfer

Perkov had no say in the lease transfer because the lease is held by San Pedro developers Steven Podesta and Bill Moller, the former owners of the Princess Louise. Perkov paid rent to Podesta and Moller, who in turn paid the port.

Port officials have said they are owed $40,000 in back rent for the Princess Louise, which is still operating under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code. The Princess Pavilion, a restaurant Perkov operates on land near the Princess Louise, is not affected by the bankruptcy or the lease transfer.

A former Canadian ocean liner named for the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, the Princess Louise has played host to countless weddings, bar mitzvahs and high school proms. Built in 1921, the former cruise ship--known as “Queen of the Northern Seas” in its heyday--cruised the Alaskan straits from Vancouver, B.C., to Skagway, Alaska, for more than 40 years.

In 1966, the ship was converted into a restaurant and brought to Terminal Island. It operated there until 1979, when it was moved to Berth 94, under the Vincent Thomas Bridge and not far from the World Cruise Center.

Change of Owners

The ship has changed owners several times; Perkov purchased it from Podesta and Moller in September, 1984.

Although he would not talk to reporters Wednesday, Perkov said several months ago that he hoped to stay in San Pedro and work out a plan to pay off his debts.

“I’m not here to close,” he said in an April interview with The Times. “We are inches away from the break-even point. It would be a shame to have to lose her now.”

Jerry Sutton, a San Pedro resident who purchased the Princess Louise in 1966 and brought it to Los Angeles, predicted that a petition drive would be mounted to keep the ship in San Pedro. “I am terribly upset over them wanting to get this out of here,” Sutton said in an interview Thursday. “It’s almost an historical site here. A lot of people got married aboard, you know.”

Port officials said they did not intend to chase out the Princess Louise when they began looking for a dinner-cruise operator in October.

At that time, officials said, they did not know the Princess Louise would run into financial trouble. They said they have long wanted to provide a large-scale dinner-cruise service but did not have the room until new space became available at the World Cruise Center.

One Dinner-Cruise Ship

Only one company--Buccaneer/Mardi Gras Cruises at Ports O’Call Village--now offers public dinner cruises and can accommodate up to 145 passengers. Other companies offer dinner cruises for private parties.

After an informal search in which four firms submitted proposals, the Harbor Department selected Hornblower, the San Francisco company, to provide dinner cruises at the World Cruise Center, according to Mark Richter, assistant director of property management at the port.

Hornblower President Terry MacRae said he asked Richter about having access to the Princess Louise berth at that time but was told it was not available.

In April, when the Princess Louise filed bankruptcy action, Richter notified the company that came in second during the port’s search: Holiday Adventures Inc. of Norfolk, Va. Holiday runs its “Spirit” cruises in other major cities--New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and Miami among them--and was interested in expanding to the West Coast.

Richter said he told officials at Holiday that they and Podesta and Moller “might find some common ground.” He said he did not tell MacRae that the Princess Louise berth had become available.

Gave Up Lease

Subsequently, Richter said, Podesta and Moller agreed to give up their lease to Holiday Adventures. As part of the agreement, Podesta and Moller must pay the back rent to the port.

MacRae said he was never told that he would be the exclusive operator of dinner cruises. “We discussed the whole issue of competition, and there was never a conclusion reached per se, but there was a discussion of the need to be careful,” he said.

At Wednesday’s meeting, MacRae told the harbor commissioners that he feared that port officials “may now be changing their well-planned, carefully developed position that was focused basically on long-term success. I’m hoping the motivations aren’t just to solve a lease problem.”

Both MacRae and Jayme Wilson, president of the Ports O’Call Merchants Assn., asked the commissioners to delay action until the economic impact of having two major dinner-cruise vessels could be determined.

‘Best Interest’

The commission did not delay action. Rather, Commission Vice President Ira Distenfield praised Richter and his boss, Property Management Director Michael Lemke, saying their actions were “very much in the best interest of the community.”

In an interview after the vote, Richter said he believes there is a big enough market for both vessels--as well as the smaller boats at Ports O’Call.

“I think this will be the most beneficial thing to Ports O’Call that they have seen in a while,” Richter said, noting that the dinner cruises will sail past Ports O’Call, and their owners will initiate expensive marketing efforts that will help tourist businesses elsewhere in the port.

“They will advertise Los Angeles Harbor--come see the port,” Richter said. “When somebody . . . comes down for a dinner cruise early I think it’s very likely that they’ll wind up at Ports O’Call.”