Maryland is suing Ovenbird Bakery for more than $650,000

Ovenbird Bakery is being sued by Maryland for more than $650,000, the remaining principal, interest and fees on a loan that the bakery’s owners took out with the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development in 2023.

The state is seeking a confessed judgment, which would allow it to collect the money without a trial, as authorized in the original loan agreement.

According to court filings, the Attorney General’s Office alerted bakery owners Keiller Kyle and Nadire Duru last year that they were in breach of the loan’s original terms after failing to make payments on time. A letter dated April 22, 2025, requested immediate payment of more than $39,000. The state followed up this past June, notifying Kyle and Duru that they were in default and demanding the entire amount owed on the loan plus interest.

Kyle said last week that he was unaware that the state was seeking a confessed judgment. Though he admitted to falling behind on repayments during “a period of financial strain,” he said in a statement Tuesday that Ovenbird has “resumed our regular loan payments and are prepared to bring the outstanding past-due payments current.” Ovenbird, Kyle said, is “working on additional financing that will further strengthen the business.”

Kyle also said in an interview last week that the original loan arrived months later than promised, which had a snowballing effect on his business as it was converting a warehouse in the city’s Highlandtown neighborhood into its main bakery and production hub. The loan from the state, at around $630,000, was just a portion of the funds Ovenbird borrowed to build out the branch and bakery space.

While they waited, construction on the new branch was ongoing, with contractors needing to be paid. He and Duru had to seek loans elsewhere, and wound up in deeper debt, Kyle said.

A spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development did not respond to a request to comment on Kyle’s claims. An attorney listed for the state could not be reached for comment.

Ovenbird’s Highlandtown location opened in late 2023, and another retail branch arrived in Hampden’s Rotunda last year. Sales have been strong for the brand, which also sells its bread wholesale to clients like The Wine Source bottle shop and which is on the menu at local cafes and restaurants. Retail revenue is significantly up year over year, said Kyle, who launched the business in Baltimore’s Little Italy neighborhood in 2020. “Our business is starting to grow, and we’re staying ahead of all this impending doom because of that growth.”

But the state’s lawsuit could put its future in question. The request for a confessed judgement, Kyle said in a text message, “takes a 15 year term to an immediate one and it becomes very challenging for a small business to function.”

Baltimore Banner reporter Dylan Segelbaum contributed to this story.