Disney to End Operations at Queen Mary : Entertainment: Firm will not extend lease on money-losing attractions, including the Spruce Goose. Long Beach will run them for now but long-term fate is unclear.
The Walt Disney Co. announced Friday that it is pulling out of its Long Beach operation at the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose, throwing the future of the famed tourist attractions in doubt and killing city dreams of a Disney development on the waterfront.
Disney had for the last several months been talking to city officials about extending its lease option on the Queen Mary ocean liner, Howard Hughes’ Flying Boat and surrounding property for another two years. That had boosted hopes that the entertainment giant might build a waterfront attraction in Long Beach, even though Disney decided late last year not to develop a major resort and theme park on the site.
After negotiations with the city, the company announced that it will end its lease, give up its development rights for the property and stop operating the Queen Mary and nearby Spruce Goose attractions Sept. 30.
“The Queen Mary has not been a profitable operation as a tourist attraction and has proved to be a less than viable investment,” the company said in a news release.
Several city officials indicated that the Long Beach Harbor Department would probably continue operating the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose--which employ 1,100--in the short term. But in the long term, the attractions’ fate is unclear.
The Queen Mary, owned by the city and moored in Long Beach since 1967, has been a big-time money loser for the city as well as a string of private operators. Disney officials said the company lost nearly $8 million on the two attractions last year and spent $7 million to $8 million a year on maintenance and repairs.
While expressing disappointment in Disney’s decision, Mayor Ernie Kell said it was not the end of the 56-year-old ocean liner. “We’re going to have to look around for another operator. . . . The Queen Mary in my opinion will be staying.”
Kell said he had heard that another firm had indicated some interest in the floating hotel, although he had no details.
Other officials were not so optimistic. “I do not see where there could be a future for the Queen Mary in Long Beach,” said Harbor Commissioner David L. Hauser. In light of the jobs provided by the two attractions and about $1 million in taxes to government coffers, the port would operate it for the next one or two years, Hauser said.
In ending its lease, Disney is also turning its back on any Long Beach development.
When the company chose Anaheim over Long Beach last year as the site of its second Southern California theme park, Disney officials said they might be interested in developing a smaller attraction on the property.
But Erwin Okun, a senior vice president of Disney, said the company has concluded that even a smaller project would not be worthwhile. “There was nothing viable,” Okun said. “We did not have an alternative that was appealing or could be developed in a reasonable period of time.”
Port Director Steve Dillenbeck said Disney representatives told him and other city officials Friday that the company had so many projects in the works that it would not have been able to turn its attention to a Long Beach development for another seven to 10 years.
