The offices are dark, the doors are locked. Abandoned buildings and empty lots, ringed by slumped metal fences, are stark reminders of promises gone bust.

This is the state of the Baltimore real estate empire of the Chasen Cos., whose namesake founder just a few years ago boasted of plans to spend $100 million on expanding his boutique housing brand across the United States. These days, Brandon Chasen is keeping a much lower profile.

Punch in his number: “The wireless customer you are calling is unavailable.”

Chasen Cos.’ unraveling can be seen and felt throughout the city.

On Thursday, a judge granted a petition from creditors to force the construction arm of Chasen Cos. into bankruptcy. The business did not contest the legal action.

In Fells Point, once the center of the company’s development efforts, neighbors have noticed people trespassing and littering inside the unfinished structures, said Kate Simms, president of the Fell’s Point Residents Association.

“Now we’re left with all this mess that needs to be cleaned up,” she said.

The real estate startup went big while mortgage interest rates went low, acquiring a historic downtown skyscraper, an empty lot in the heart of Fells Point and two adjacent brick buildings near Harbor East, among other properties.

However, construction stopped months ago at the company’s work sites. Tenants of completed projects, meanwhile, can’t get in touch with Chasen Cos., and company representatives and their lawyers have stopped showing up in court to fight lawsuits by vendors and banks.

Chasen Cos. has “pretty much disappeared,” said Jeffrey Dewberry, vice president of the Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fell’s Point.

The firm owns about 10% of all multifamily properties in Fells Point, according to a 2024 Baltimore Banner analysis of property records.

Dewberry once cheered the developer as a trusted partner that sensitively restored critical pieces of a historic district. Now, he sees its unfinished work starting to drag the neighborhood down.

Real estate industry observers have long suspected Chasen Cos. of playing with fire.

The flashy company routinely outbid more established developers on high-profile properties, accepted high-interest loans tied to the rate set by the Federal Reserve, promoted its founders’ lavish lifestyles online and amassed a long list of tenant complaints in court filings and social media.

Carol Ott, tenant advocacy director at Economic Action Maryland, said she felt disheartened to learn the company had enough money to spend on a $5 million private jet while tenants complained about lacking basic amenities, such as working heat.

“I don’t understand the idea of a company mistreating customers on such a large scale,” said Ott, who said she has fielded numerous complaints about Chasen Cos. over the years. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The Banner has unsuccessfully tried for months to reach Chasen, his business partner, Paul Davis, and their lawyers.

Meanwhile, court records show Davis has sought to create some distance between himself and the company. He retained his own attorneys, who made clear in court documents that they represented him and him alone.

Neighborhood undevelopment

Some of the company’s unfinished projects have become popular sites for illegal dumping and graffiti, neighbors said. Construction materials have spilled over into sidewalks, doors have been boarded up.

The historic Meyer Seed Co. warehouse, purchased for $10 million in 2022, has been left to rot without a roof. A Chasen Cos. subsidiary filed for bankruptcy to protect the property next door from being sold at auction.

The hollowed-out Meyer building and its deteriorating construction fence on Fleet Street is a hazard for pedestrians at the well-traversed border of Fells Point and Harbor East, neighborhood boosters said.

Chasen Cos. planned to name what they said would be a high-end, mixed-use building “The Whitney.”

“It’s hard to even call it a building anymore,” said Baltimore City Councilman Mark Parker, a Democrat who represents much of Fells Point.

Parker said he hopes an experienced developer could be persuaded to finish the job.

In Mount Vernon, the historic center of Baltimore, Chasen Cos. has failed to handle trash sufficiently at some buildings over the years, prompting legal action from the city.

Paula Fernandes, vice president of the Mount Vernon-Belvedere Association, said she has heard complaint after complaint from tenants about unresolved maintenance problems, which she believes scares people off.

“It’s just a flaming disaster for our neighborhood,” she said. “They’re one of the worst offenders. You say the word ‘Chasen’ and everybody groans.”

Tenants ignored

Aaron Glase-Stock, a social worker and psychotherapist who lives in a Chasen Cos. property in downtown Baltimore, said he and his wife, Brianna, wanted to renew their lease earlier this year — but simply couldn’t reach anyone to do so.

Emails addressed to company representatives bounced back, he said, and attempts to get in touch with the property managers were also unsuccessful. Phone numbers posted online were disconnected.

They decided to go to Chasen Cos.’ headquarters on Eastern Avenue in Fells Point. Through the door, Glase-Stock said, he could see a giant stack of unopened mail. On the door was a paper tag: “We have legal documents for: Brandon Chasen.”

“We rang the doorbell,” Glase-Stock said, “and there was nothing.”

The couple eventually got through to someone and signed a month-to-month lease.

He said he and his wife are “just trying to get a house and get out of here as fast as possible.”

Not every tenant can afford to leave.

Ben Pierce, who works with refugees at a nonprofit organization, a job that’s become less stable over the last few months, lives at a Chasen Cos. building on Cathedral Street in Mount Vernon and has watched its condition deteriorate.

On a recent spring day, Pierce pointed out broken door handles that haven’t been fixed, water pooling in the basement garage and spaces that were advertised to tenants that are now blocked off.

The building has experienced break-ins and errant fire alarms, Pierce said, and it’s not clear if tenant concerns ever reached anyone.

“There’s nothing better in Mount Vernon for the size or the price,” said Pierce, who noted that tenants have left trash lying around and made messes of their own, too. “It all stems from, ‘If my property manager is not going to take care of the place, I’m not going to, either.’”

Contractors stiffed

More than a dozen contractors and businesses, many of them based in the Baltimore area, have sued Chasen Cos. over the last year, alleging nonpayment and breach of contract.

“They refuse to pay us,” said Nathan Uncapher, owner of Patriot Steel Fabrication Inc. The company obtained a $600,000 lien on the Meyer building.

Jason Kelly, a senior vice president at Hughes Mechanical LLC, an air conditioning contractor based in Essex, alleges that business is owed about $50,000 for 84 Chasen Cos. work orders.

Hughes Mechanical has not sued Chasen Cos., reasoning that would cost just as much to pay for attorneys.

“A number like that affects a company like us,” said Robert “Eddie” Hughes, the firm’s founder.

Count the city among those stiffed by Chasen Cos.

The company is delinquent on water bills at nearly every property it owns, for a total of about $400,000, online records show. Jennifer Combs, a spokesperson at the Baltimore City Department of Public Works, declined to comment.

A few properties, including One Calvert Plaza, a historic downtown skyscraper, have been foreclosed on and put up for sale. In other cases, Chasen Cos. continues to accrue interest payments on unpaid loans.

In the last few weeks alone, at least four more lawsuits have surfaced against the company in the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City, in addition to the forced bankruptcy.

The plaintiffs now include the Sherwin-Williams Co. The Cleveland-based national paint distributor sued the company over a $6,800 debt, court records show, and tacked on an additional $1,026, or 15%, in attorney fees.

As in other cases, attorneys for Chasen Cos. have not filed a response.