Who’s buying up Chasen Cos.’ imploded Baltimore real estate empire

This historic Baltimore skyscraper has withstood great fires, foreclosures and years of vacancy and vandalism. And Chasen Cos.

Now, One Calvert Plaza, an office tower formerly known as the Continental Trust Co. Building, is set to become off-campus housing for Morgan State University students in the heart of Downtown Baltimore.

Adam Zaken, a Philadelphia real estate developer, purchased the 16-story building last year for $5.1 million, less than half of what Chasen Cos. paid to turn it into luxury apartments in 2022.

Once an ambitious development firm based in Fells Point, the splashy Baltimore developer imploded last year, sending co-founder Brandon Chasen Sr. and his company into bankruptcy.

The wreckage includes roughly 75 properties, about half of which have since changed hands, a Banner review of legal filings and land records found.

Other properties have struggled to find buyers. A block of Chasen Cos. properties clustered in Mount Vernon and Station North failed to sell in June.

The former Meyer Seed Co. warehouse, on the border of Fells Point and Harbor East, was recently sold in two parcels, according to land records.

Zaken, president of Philadelphia-based Mira Properties, controls one of them. An offshoot of Oregon-based StanCorp Financial Group bought the other.

Chasen Cos. purchased the Meyer Seed site for $10 million in 2022 and once envisioned it as a five-story mixed-use development with condos, apartment units and retail. Court filings show the company once reported the building’s projected market value at $44 million.

Zaken acquired his share last year for $7.5 million, while the StanCorp affiliate spent a little more than $3 million staking a claim to the rest.

Meanwhile, a Kansas City-based real estate investor, the CEO of IronDoor Management, scooped up 23 properties in a bulk deal, according to bankruptcy filings. Its new Baltimore portfolio includes some of Chasen Cos.’ marquee properties, such as The Chateaus in Mount Vernon, The Archer in Fells Point and Wyman Park Apartments in Hampden.

IronDoor CEO Amin Rezvani did not respond to requests for comment.

Chasen, a Potomac native, and his former business partner, Paul Davis, once hoped to expand their boutique housing brand across the country. They also doubled down on Baltimore, buying high-profile properties in Fells Point and Harbor East that were meant to cement their place at the top of the city’s housing food chain.

In Fells Point alone, the company purchased about 10% of available multifamily properties from about 2017 to 2024, according to a Banner data analysis.

Climbing mortgage interest rates and growing legal problems, including lawsuits from vendors alleging nonpayment, changed the company’s trajectory.

Court-appointed trustees tasked with overseeing the bankruptcies have received wide latitude to comb through Chasen Cos.’ books and begin the process of paying back creditors.

Chasen and Davis pitched investors on their business strategy in a slide deck crafted sometime around 2023, later submitted as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. They would purchase properties in tight clusters in high-end neighborhoods, build a monopoly, and control rents and supply in each investment area.

Ideally, according to the deck, the existing properties would be older and require some light touch-ups, but could then be rented for higher prices.

During bankruptcy hearings, Chasen has admitted to using company funds to take lavish trips, buy expensive artwork and support his girlfriend’s business ventures. His attorney, Adam Freiman, has stated that there was no financial impropriety and that the company’s failure occurred due to reasons outside its control.

Morgan State will lease One Calvert Plaza downtown in three-year increments. Zaken, the Philadelphia developer, said the conversion of the building into a modern living-learning community will add much-needed bustle to the area and could inspire other investors to follow suit.

He initially bid $10 million for the tower but wound up rescinding that and submitting a lower offer, saying that rents for multifamily properties in Baltimore had fallen while construction costs had dramatically risen. And, he noted, it would cost at least $3 million to replace “partially installed” HVAC systems to comply with new regulations, and the last owner had failed to apply for “valuable” tax credits within the allotted window.

An entity controlled by Davis made a competing offer of $12 million, but the court-appointed receiver determined it to be a “less desirable” offer due to Davis’ creditworthiness and a “dependence on low-probability financing,” court documents show.

The receiver determined that the building’s last appraisal during the Chasen Cos. era, for $19 million, was excessive.

Douglas Gwynn, Morgan’s director of the Office of Residence Life & Housing, said students will be able to rent rooms at One Calvert Plaza for around the same price as other off-campus options. The deal fulfills two needs for Morgan: It helps cure the institution’s student housing waitlist and expands the historically Black institution’s Baltimore footprint.

“Morgan is very interested in being part of the renovation and revitalization of the downtown area,” Gwynn said, adding that students will have more access to businesses, jobs and internship opportunities closer to home.

The institution expects the building to open and accept students for move-in by the start of the fall term late next month.

Banner reporter Dylan Segelbaum contributed to this story.