Arkansas Queen riverboat looks to chug out of NLR, officials say
North Little Rock is expecting to lose the Arkansas Queen riverboat to another city, maybe another continent, if speculation comes true about a move after almost seven years of cruises on the Arkansas River.
Roger Odell, general manager for Arkansas Queen LLC, said Monday that he couldn’t confirm the speculation but added that a letter to Mayor Joe Smith about the riverboat’s future would be delivered today. He couldn’t provide any more information until then, he said.
The Arkansas Queen leases part of the riverbank from North Little Rock and uses the city-owned Patriot tug as its offices, galley and gift shop under a 10-year contract approved by the City Council about eight years ago. The riverboat’s operation began in April 2006.
The riverboat’s apparent move caught North Little Rock officials off-guard; they said they knew little about it.
“I heard a rumor,” Smith said about midafternoon Monday, six days after he was sworn in. “I haven’t talked to Roger or anybody there. What I heard was the boat was leaving and going to New Orleans. I haven’t had a chance to research it or to call them.”
Smith added that there have been “some investors looking at bringing a boat into here if this one leaves.”
“Hopefully that’ll happen,” Smith said. “I think the river and central Arkansas needs a riverboat and we’ll do
whatever we can to help get one to replace the Arkansas Queen.”
Bob Major, executive director of the North Little Rock Visitors Bureau, called speculation early Monday “a pretty valid rumor.” He said he’s heard the riverboat would relocate to New Orleans to be refitted as a casino, then moved to South America. He hadn’t been in contact with Odell, he said.
The Arkansas Queen is docked along the river within the city’s Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum complex, though it isn’t associated in any other way with the public museum. North Little Rock paid $785,782 to Mobley Contractors, according to a review of city financial records in 2008, to build mooring facilities for all vessels in the museum complex, including the privately owned riverboat.
Arkansas Queen has a 10year lease with North Little Rock to operate along 350 linear feet of riverbank in Riverfront Park, adjacent the maritime museum.
The lease runs through Jan. 12, 2015, so the riverboat company will be breaking the lease if it relocates. There are no penalties involved for early termination, said Daniel McFadden, an assistant city attorney. The only stipulation is that the premises are returned to the city, he said.
The lease specifies that the riverboat company pay the city rent equal to 1.5 percent of its annual gross revenue when that revenue is between $1.5 million and $2 million, with a higher percentage for amounts beyond that. According to city finance and city clerk records, the riverboat company never paid any rent to the city.
The City Council approved in a special meeting Jan. 12, 2005, to allow a riverboat operation as a way to promote a developing riverfront as a hoped-for attraction to residents and tourists.
“The Queen just hasn’t been able to make it as we had all hoped,” said Major, who added that the Visitors Bureau advertises the riverboat in promotional materials for the city that and it has been an added draw for some tourists.
“We have a retired military group coming into the [downtown] RV Park in April, roughly 150 people,” Major said. “They’ve booked a cruise. They were excited about it, being able to take a dinner cruise. A number of RV groups will book a cruise on there. It’s just the general public here. I don’t know the reason why it just never really caught on with them.”
The triple-decked Arkansas Queen paddlewheel boat is 130 feet long and can carry 338 passengers. The boat was built in 1994 as the Peconic River Queen. It operated as the Tunica Queen in Tunica County, Miss., from 2003 until Nov. 1, 2005, when it moved upriver to change and became the Arkansas Queen.