Big-Money Developers Hatch an Idea for Monorail Line in Downtown Long Beach
Six of this city’s most influential developers plan to meet next week to discuss the possibility of constructing a monorail that would link downtown office buildings, hotels and the convention center with the Los Angeles-to-Long Beach light rail line and the Queen Mary.
The president of McDonnell Douglas Realty Co. said this week that his company and IDM Corp. already have the funds to build a monorail that would link their respective downtown developments. The half-mile segment would conceivably run from the light rail terminus in the center of downtown to the planned 35-story McDonnell Douglas building and IDM’s World Trade Center on Ocean Boulevard.
“We don’t want any public financing,” said President Robert Young of McDonnell Douglas Realty Co. “We don’t want anything to do with government programs . . . IDM and us are ready to fund our link from light rail to our projects. . . . We don’t want it to bog down because one of the (four other) developers says ‘no.’ ”
An IDM spokeswoman confirmed that company officials have discussed downtown transportation plans, but said they have made no commitments.
The monorail idea was hatched by McDonnell Douglas Realty and the Walt Disney Co.’s real estate arm as a way of taking advantage of the $752-million, light rail line due to open in 1990. It would also link the city’s revitalized downtown with the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose tourist attractions, which Disney acquired this year.
The six developers are scheduled to meet Wednesday at a downtown hotel to discuss the project. Besides McDonnell Douglas Realty, Disney and IDM, the group includes representatives from Cushman Realty Corp., which plans to build the Landmark Square tower; the Ratkovich Co., co-developer of a $1-billion project on the old Pike amusement park site, and Stanley Cohen, who built the new Shoreline Square hotel and office complex.
Young said that talks will not only center on broad concepts, but on such specifics as the type of system, route, cost and financing.
Developers privy to the discussions, however, repeatedly caution that their ideas are in their infancy. They say they fear that a rush of premature publicity could doom a monorail project before a proposal is fully developed.
“We don’t want to whip up a lot of excitement if it is not going to happen,” explained David Malmuth, director of development for the Disney Development Co. “We throw out ideas (for discussion) all of the time. . . . Most of them do not tend to hold up too well under that scrutiny.”
But after pointing out the tentativeness of a monorail or people mover, several developers were quick to point out its potential benefits:
Parking spaces among all the developments could be pooled and office workers could glide to their jobs on the system. The Queen Mary, Spruce Goose and the Long Beach Convention Center have thousands of parking spaces between them, Young said. Hence, a City Hall employee might park at the Queen Mary and take the shuttle to work instead of trying to find a space in parking-tight downtown.
The light rail line could deliver not only employees, but tourists to the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose. Walt Disney Co., which acquired the famous liner and historic aircraft from Wrather Port Properties Ltd. and is still deciding whether to retain and develop the site, has been actively researching what kind of transportation system could deliver huge crowds of thrill seekers to the port site.
A monorail would link the office centers on the west end of Ocean Boulevard with the retail, dining and banking centers in the center and east end. Employees in the World Trade Center or Oceangate complexes could be whisked to the luncheon tables on Pine Avenue without having to drive or take a valuable few minutes for a brisk walk.
Long Beach would have yet another feather in its cap to boost tourism and business.
“This has been on people’s minds a long time,” said Paul W. Stern, executive vice president of the Ratkovich Co.
Young said a fixed guideway system could be developed for $7 million to $8 million a mile, a fraction of the cost of the 21-mile light rail line, which is similar in technology to a trolley.
Other Projects
Considering the companies’ backgrounds, it is not surprising that McDonnell Douglas and Disney jointly conjured up the idea of a monorail for downtown Long Beach. Both companies either have or are planning other projects that include elevated rail transportation.
Disney built and has operated its eel-like monorails at Disneyland in Anaheim and at Walt Disney World in Florida. It has been rumored to be exploring non-automotive methods of moving large numbers of tourists to the Queen Mary site, including taking them on high-speed boats from places like Santa Monica or Newport Beach. Malmuth would neither confirm nor deny these rumors.
McDonnell Douglas Realty, the development arm of the aerospace giant that is the city’s largest employer, is seeking approval to build a half-mile-long monorail linking an Irvine office center with John Wayne Airport in Orange County. That $3.5-million transportation project would also be privately financed.
Long Beach City Manager James Hankla, who has been briefed on the idea, said he believes it is too early for publicity: Any monorail project, he said, would first have to be judged on its cost effectiveness, ridership projections and related economic issues.
Mayor Welcomes It
Mayor Ernie Kell said he had not heard of the developers’ discussions, but that he would welcome a system linking the light rail and city buses.
Developer Stanley Cohen, whose downtown Shoreline Square project was dedicated in September, said he wants to hear more about the idea at the meeting before deciding whether a monorail would help or hurt the Sheraton Hotel and adjoining office tower.
He said he is concerned about whether an overhead system could be an eyesore and whether it would be routed along Ocean Boulevard, where it could block views.
“I would want to look at whether it is a benefit to the entire city,” Cohen said. “On its best face, it could add a new dimension to downtown. On its worst, it could end up sitting there with no one riding (it).”
