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Years of Queen Mary inspection reports show little repair progress has been made, despite new operator

Long Beach officials argued the reports don't reflect the full scope of work that has occurred.

By HAYLEY MUNGUIA | hmunguia@scng.com | Long Beach Press-Telegram
PUBLISHED: October 19, 2019 at 7:00 a.m. | UPDATED: October 19, 2019 at 7:01 a.m.

The Queen Mary, a retired British ocean liner that Long Beach has sought for decades to restore to its former glory, continues to languish.

Years of inspection reports obtained by the Press-Telegram, predating and including the current operator’s lease, revealed that little progress has been made on urgent repair work to the ship.

Long Beach officials, for their part, have argued that the inspection reports don’t reflect the full scope of work that has occurred on the ship. But the inspector tasked with analyzing the Queen Mary’s condition said he has seen little, if any, evidence that enough rehabilitation work is being done to prevent the ship from falling further into disrepair.

“The biggest problem is that maintenance isn’t being performed,” Long Beach’s third-party inspector, Edward Pribonic, said in a phone interview this week. “And there is no enforcement on the city’s side to get that done.”

Lack of maintenance and repair work has been an ongoing theme throughout Pribonic’s reports, despite the city’s selection of a new operator for the ship in 2016. Early that year, Urban Commons took over a 66-year lease and agreed to take on the Queen Mary’s maintenance.

As part of the deal, Long Beach agreed to pay $23 million toward the repair work. But that money dried up last year, and problems persist.

Pribonic’s comments were consistent with years of monthly reports he has submitted to the city about the Queen Mary’s state.

In a January 2016 report, Pribonic noted that the ship’s expansion joints have been an ongoing issue since at least 1999. After years of noting the issue could become a danger, he noted, an attempt to repair them resulted in “a large section of the corroded expansion joint (falling) from overhead nearly striking staff below it.”

After that, he was informed that only a portion of the joints would be repaired.

“I consider this unacceptable from both a safety viewpoint and a preservation viewpoint,” he wrote.

In reports from this year, Pribonic wrote that staff had indicated work was being done on the expansion joints. But despite those assurances, he wrote in May, “I found this not to be the case.”

Other issues, like the ship’s lifeboats, have also made repeat appearances in inspection reports over the years.

“No work on containing the expanding corrosion of the lifeboats has been done in years,” he wrote in November 2015. “I would like to raise awareness to the fact that the davit structures that hold up the boats is also rapidly corroding and structural cracks are appearing.”

In January of this year, Pribonic noted that the lack of work on the lifeboats “is a critical safety concern.”

And in May, he reiterated, “The danger of structural failure of the lifeboats is the highest priority.”

In his interview with the Press-Telegram, Pribonic said he, city staff and the ship’s operator, Urban Commons, have all agreed that the lifeboats are some of “the most critical items.”

But the company, Pribonic said, has no funding to address his concerns.

Representatives for Urban Commons declined to answer questions about the state of the ship. Spokeswoman Martha Dickerson pointed to previous statements made by Urban Commons’ principal and co-founder, Taylor Woods.

“Repairs to The Queen Mary have been underway for some time, with each item outlined in our agreement appropriately prioritized and either already addressed, or postponed,” Woods said in an Oct. 4 statement, “with supporting documentation in favor of issues that required immediate attention to ensure the ship remains safe for visitors and crew at all times.”

Long Beach, for its part, appears to have confidence in Urban Commons’ stewardship.

“I can say without any reservations that the ship is far safer than it was three years ago, or the day before Urban Commons took over the contract,” Long Beach Economic Development Director John Keisler said in a Friday, Oct. 18, interview.

“We know that a lot of the issues in the reports that have been addressed — they just dropped off the reports,” Keisler added, noting that significant progress has been made on repairs to the Queen Mary’s fire and life-safety systems, including the ship’s fire alarm panel and emergency generator.

“Inspection reports should all be bad,” Keisler said. “They should be addressing issues of concern.”

In that respect, it appears Pribonic is succeeding in his task.

But, counter to Keisler’s point, Pribonic said he stood by his reports as documents noting the state of the Queen Mary as a whole.

“I question how you can go through $23 million and get virtually nothing done,” Pribonic said, “and there’s no problem with that.”

As for where the ship goes from here, Pribonic said it’s unclear, because his understanding is that Urban Commons simply doesn’t have the money to keep up with the necessary work.

Keisler acknowledged funding is an issue, but he said the operator is working cooperatively with the city to come up with solutions.

Although Keisler sent a letter earlier this month to Urban Commons, warning the firm that it may default on its lease, Keisler said Friday that was no longer a concern.

“They’ve shown they’re being very responsive,” he said, “and they intend to not only meet those deadlines, but they want to make sure they fulfill those obligations.”

Meanwhile, Long Beach is eyeing hiring another third-party firm to check Pribonic’s work.

“The main thing here is that, in the last three months, the language that’s being used by our consultant and our inspector has become more acute,” Keisler said, “and so we’re now asking a third-party engineer, a larger engineering firm with operational capacity, to do a deeper dive to look at those specific issues.”

...The real estate firm has faced similar, though less extreme, troubles in Long Beach. In late 2019, city officials issued a notice to the company that it was in danger of defaulting on its Queen Mary lease because of its failure to complete urgent repair work. Around the same time, Long Beach’s third-party inspector for the Queen Mary began speaking publicly about the lack of maintenance and repairs that he saw on the ship.

But early last year, the city ended its longstanding contract with the inspector.

Long Beach officials, though, have repeatedly stood by Urban Commons in the face of criticism.

“I can say without any reservations that the ship is far safer than it was three years ago, or the day before Urban Commons took over the contract,” Long Beach Economic Development Director John Keisler said in a 2019 interview, shortly after he advised the firm that it could default on its lease.

But in December 2019, City Auditor Laura Doud announced that she would begin an audit of the city’s Queen Mary lease agreement with Urban Commons. Doud has not yet released the results of that audit.

A Wednesday statement from the city said Long Beach is “concerned” about the bankruptcy filings.

“The City is concerned with this development, as the company has a long-term obligation to ensure the upkeep and operation of the City’s asset,” the statement said. “The City will be requesting information from (Eagle Hospitality Trust) to understand their immediate operational plans and will take appropriate legal steps in the process to ensure the City and the Queen Mary are protected.”