8 • October 10 - 23, 2014 • The Log


thelog.com Shops aboard Queen Mary given short-term reprieve


Store owners were issued a 30-day notice in September.


By Parimal M. Rohit


LONG BEACH — Permanently docked on the aquatic edge of Long Beach, the Queen Mary has long been subject to rumors of being haunted. Such rumors have even been incorporated into a marketing plan to help draw tourists and visitors to the retired ocean liner. Of course, some of those tourists and visitors who end up patronizing the Queen Mary probably also visit one of the many shops on board the ship. In early September, the Queen


Mary’s management team issued a 30- day notice to evict to the ship’s shops. At the requests of the retail tenants, both the city of Long Beach and the Queen Mary agreed to allow the shops to remain aboard the ocean liner through the first week of 2015 on a month-to-month basis at base-rate rents.


The ship’s retail area will become a


ghost town beginning Jan. 6, 2015, as upgrades to the ship are scheduled to take place. Percentage rates were waived “in


order to generate additional cash flow for the retail tenants to assist in their relocation,” according to Queen Mary officials. According to Queen Mary manage-


Divers From page 4


wreck divers like Bruce and Robert Lanham of San Francisco. The Lanham brothers have discov-


ered several historic Bay-area wrecks. Bruce Lanham joined the recent NOAA expedition, and with his broth- er led the NOAA team to a wreck site they believed was the Selja. In 1910 the steamer Selja sank in a fatal colli- sion, which featured prominently in a legal case that ultimately was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court over a key aspect of maritime law, the “rule


Couture con- firmed every retailer aboard the ship was given until Jan. 6 to vacate. Queen Mary


Visitors will only have until Jan. 6, 2015 to shop at their favorite stores located on the Queen Maryas the vessel’s management team plans for a complete overhaul of the on-vessel stores.


ment, San Diego-based Event Network has partnered with the permanently docked ship to oversee retail opera- tions through 2019. Event Network serves as a retail


partner with approximatlety 100 ven- ues nationwide, including the College Football Hall of Fame, Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Alamo, Battleship Iowa, Gettysburg National Military Park and the Griffith Observatory. An employee of Pasttime


Collectibles, who had been with the shop for 15 years, told The Log the notices “came as a big surprise.” Another employee at Queen Mary


of the road.” “Bruce and Bob were crucial to the success of the mission as was volun- teer Gary Fabian, who re-analyzed hours of NOAA sonar data to pinpoint wreck sites,” said Schwemmer. One of the targets Fabian pointed out was the right size and in the right location to be the clipper ship Noonday, lost in 1863 and part of the fleet of fast-sailing vessels that brought men and supplies to California during and after the Gold Rush. “Noonday Rock,” north of the Farallones, was named for the wreck. In addition to the newly identified ships, Vitad Pradith, a researcher with


retailers such as Queen Mary Couture, Pasttime Collectibles, The Dragon Shoppes and Scottish Heritage Center have been oper- ating from the ocean liner for decades. The retailers


were on month-to-month leases since 2012, according to Queen Mary man- agement. “They clearly understand our ongo-


ing efforts to upgrade all business sys- tems and the overall Queen Mary expe- rience, from tours to dining to shop- ping,” Queen Mary General Manager John Jenkins stated in a press release. After the initial 30-day notice was issued to all retailers and the news went public, Queen Mary management extended the month-to-month agree- ments through Jan. 6, 2015. Jenkins stated the retailers would


suffer from too much hardship if forced to move by the first week of


NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey Navigation Response Team 6, com- pleted the first-ever sonar survey of the submerged portions of the wrecks of the tankers Frank H. Buck and Lyman Stewart. The engines of both vessels are visible at low tide off San Francisco’s Lands End, inside the waters of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. “Buck and Stewart are probably the


best known wrecks in the park,” said Stephen Haller, park historian, who joined the project team on the just- completed mission. “We now have a better understanding of how the two wrecks lie next to each other, and


October, which is when the initial 30- day notice would have expired. “The recent exercise of contractual-


ly agreed to lease termination notices is proving a hardship for some ten- ants,” he stated. “We should also rec- ognize the needs of our current retail tenants and trust this extension will enable a seamless transition over the coming months.” Jenkins added while the extensions might impact Event Network’s plans to build out new retail venues and make other improvements, he believes the partnership with the San Diego-based company will help bolster Queen Mary’s bottom line. Revenue from retail sales is a major


contributor to Queen Mary’s opera- tions, Jenkins stated, as the historical venue does not receive much assis- tance from outside subsidies. According to Jenkins, current retail personnel aboard the Queen Mary could be interviewed by Event Network for potential jobs at new retailers. Built during the Great Depression,


the Queen Mary was christened in Scotland on Sept. 26, 1934 and embarked on its maiden voyage in 1936. The ocean liner was retired in 1967 and took residence in its current location by Shoreline Village in Long Beach. On Sept. 26, 2014, Queen Mary cele- brated its 80th birthday.


what has survived beneath the sur- face.”


The NOAA team used remote con-


trolled cameras and sensing equip- ment and will continue to analyze data from the recent dives, conduct additional research, and plan for the next phase. Brian Johnson, Gulf of the Farallones Sanctuary deputy superin- tendent, said findings from current and future research expeditions will be shared with the public. Gulf of the Farallones National


Marine Sanctuary encompasses near- ly 1,300 square miles of ocean and coastal waters beyond California’s Golden Gate Bridge.


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Parimal M. Rohit photo


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