Queen Mary to Be Offered to Long Beach Council : Landmark: A harbor panel majority favors selling the ship, but agrees to give city a chance to retain the tourist attraction.

A majority of Long Beach’s harbor commissioners favor selling the Queen Mary, but today the group will offer to turn the ocean liner over to the City Council--probably the last hope of keeping the ship in the city.

The Board of Harbor Commissioners agreed Monday in a closed session to make the offer to the City Council before accepting a $20-million bid from an investment group that wants to move the ship to Hong Kong, according to a source close to the negotiations.

The City Council reportedly will have until Monday to make a decision.

A majority of the City Council favors keeping the ship in Long Beach, but council members are wary of the cost of retaining the landmark in their financially strapped city.

The tourist attraction, which has been leased to private operators, has lost money in nine of the last 10 years, according to a recent consultant’s report.

Councilman Evan Anderson Braude, who first proposed taking over the ship last week, said on Monday that further study is needed to determine whether the ship would be a financial drain.

The independently governed and relatively wealthy Harbor Department has had jurisdiction over the ship since 1978.

“The Queen Mary is a good thing, a positive thing,” Braude said. “But we need to know exactly what the numbers are.”

But Mayor Ernie Kell said his mind is made up: The ship should be sold.

A city takeover of the ship “would be a mistake for financial reasons,” Kell said.

City officials were stunned earlier this year when the Walt Disney Co. announced that it would abandon the tourist attraction after running it under a lease since 1988. The entertainment company had lost as much as $10.8 million a year on the Queen Mary, according to one report.

Disney is scheduled to close the ship’s hotel and banquet facilities on Wednesday and lay off about 400 of the ship’s 1,200 employees.

The firm will continue to operate the ship’s tours, restaurants and shops until the end of the year.

Harbor officials have been negotiating with five prospective buyers who would move the ship out of Long Beach, and one potential operator who would keep it in the city.

The highest bid for the attraction--reportedly $20 million--is from a Hong Kong investment group. The group would operate the ship in Long Beach for at least two more years.

The lone proposal to keep the ship in Long Beach is from Joseph F. Prevratil, who once oversaw the operation of the ship for the Wrather Corp., a firm later bought by Disney.

Prevratil maintains he can run the ship at a profit with some improvements, competitive pricing and good promotion. Prevratil’s proposal is to run the ship for three to five years until city leaders determine whether it fits into their future development plans.

Three of the five harbor commissioners, who are appointed by the mayor, have said they favor selling the ship because they consider it a financial drain.

A recent consultant’s study said the ship needs as much as $27 million in repairs and maintenance over the next five years to make it safe.

“We feel that is too big of a load to carry,” said David L. Hauser, president of the Board of Harbor Commissioners.

Hauser said the commissioners would approve paying for some of the repairs and maintenance out of Harbor Department funds, but just how much has not been decided.

“I’d like to hear discussion on the amount of money they are willing to provide,” said Councilman Alan S. Lowenthal, a proponent of keeping the ship in the city. “We have to sit down and negotiate with them.”

The Queen Mary was built in Scotland and launched by Cunard Steamship Co. Ltd. in 1934. Long Beach purchased the ship for $3.45 million in 1967, and then spent $66 million over the next four years to refurbish it. The city has leased it to various operators over the years.