One of downtown Baltimore’s largest hotels has been bought back by its lender for $30 million.
The Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel at 110 South St. sold at a foreclosure auction on Wednesday to DF VII REIT Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Torchlight Investors.
“At the end of the day, the lender did buy it back,” confirmed Michael G. Gallerizzo of The Law Offices of Gebhardt & Smith LLP, the substitute trustee.
Bill Hudson of Atlantic Auctions Inc. conducted the sale in front of the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse on Calvert Street, as about a dozen people watched. Prospective bidders were required to bring a check for $1 million or that amount in cash in order to bid. Hudson started the bidding at $30 million, and the substitute trustee submitted the only offer.
According to a legal ad prepared for the auction, the hotel is a multi-story, full-service lodging facility that “is believed to” contain 622 guest rooms; a restaurant and lounge; an indoor pool and whirlpool; a fitness center; a business center; meeting rooms and banquet spaces. Many of the guest rooms have unobstructed views of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
The hotel opened in 1988 as part of a mixed-use development that was designed by the Zeidler Roberts Partnership and also contains an office tower, a shopping mall called The Gallery at Harborplace, and an underground garage, which were not part of the auction.
The hotel also has an address of 202 E. Pratt St and was initially called the Stouffer Harborplace Hotel. An affiliate of The Buccini/Pollin Group, based in Delaware, acquired the hotel portion of the development in July of 2020 for $80 million.
Foreclosure proceedings began last year after the owner defaulted on a $71 million loan. GF Hotels & Resorts of Philadelphia was named to operate the hotel after a Baltimore City Circuit judge ordered it into receivership in December. Wednesday’s sale still needs to be ratified by the Circuit Court before it becomes final.
