Harborview Marina’s 278 slips have been empty for about a year and a half after marina officials said the fixed concrete pier was unsafe. The marina remains closed while an appeal over a foreclosure sale proceeds, according to The Baltimore Banner.
What the appeal concerns
The dispute began with a 2009 ownership agreement. An entity controlled by Dr. Selvin Passen held 60% of the marina company, while an entity belonging to developer Richard Swirnow held 40%; the agreement required both sides to approve a sale. When Passen sought to sell and Swirnow objected, Passen and his partners acquired the marina’s mortgages from Orrstown Bank and then stopped making the monthly payments, according to The Baltimore Banner’s account of the court records.
The missed payments led to foreclosure. Passen submitted the only bid at the 2025 auction and bought the marina for $2.9 million after a Baltimore judge declined Swirnow’s request to stop the sale, according to CBS News, which credited The Baltimore Banner for the auction and court information.
Swirnow challenged the transaction, asking that the sale be undone or that he receive a hearing on whether Passen breached duties to the ownership company. Swirnow’s attorney, Ramsay Whitworth, described the foreclosure as an effort to force out the minority owner. Passen’s attorney, Bob Van Galoubandi, argued that the foreclosure issue is whether the bank debt was valid, not whether the partners’ broader business dispute was fair, according to The Baltimore Banner.
The appeals court is reviewing whether the auction sale should stand. The proceeding does not, based on the facts provided here, amount to a final finding of fraud. If the sale is rejected, the case could return to a lower court for examination of the allegations against Passen. The Baltimore Banner reported that the court could take several months to issue an opinion.
How the marina dispute fits broader legal and flood-risk questions
Baltimore’s waterfront also faces a broader, separate planning challenge. According to the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, sea-level rise is making coastal flooding more frequent and more severe in Baltimore, including around the Inner Harbor. A 2017 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers presentation identified the Baltimore metropolitan area for further coastal-flooding analysis, including future climate and sea-level-change scenarios. Those assessments do not establish that flooding or sea-level rise caused Harborview’s pier problems; officials cited the condition of the fixed concrete pier as the stated safety issue. Maryland appellate decisions provide general guidance but do not resolve Harborview’s appeal. In a separate 2017 hotel-foreclosure case, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals said an inadequate sale price alone ordinarily is insufficient to overturn a foreclosure sale without associated fraud, unfairness, misconduct or mistake. In a separate Montgomery County residential-foreclosure case decided June 25, 2014, the court said foreclosure trustees must use ordinary business judgment and pursue the best obtainable price. Those cases involved different properties and disputes, and neither determines whether the Harborview sale stands or whether the separate fiduciary-duty allegations can be proved.
The marina’s ownership history
Swirnow, who developed the Harborview community on the former Bethlehem Steel shipyard site, died in October 2025 at age 91. His son, David Swirnow, has continued the litigation, according to The Baltimore Banner. The former shipyard operated along Key Highway from the 1820s until 1982; portions of its old dry docks were later incorporated into parking beneath the HarborView Towers development, according to Baltimore Heritage.
