By Times staff
Tampa Bay Times
Published: Oct 25, 2012
The investment group that used to control Channelside Bay Plaza in Tampa is forging deals on Northern waters, with intentions to buy the Harborplace shopping center on Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
New York investment firm Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. intends to buy the lease for the 150,000-square-foot center, a key to that city's downtown redevelopment, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The firm's $5 billion real estate portfolio also includes Union Station in Washington, D.C., and the Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston. Harborplace's sale price was not disclosed.
The firm bought Channelside in 2006 but defaulted on a $27 million loan in 2010, leading its lender, an Irish bank, to assume control of the waterfront complex.
A court agreement granted the firm the right to match any offer for Channelside for the same price plus $375,000, an arrangement blamed earlier this week for the stalling of a potential sale to a group led by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik.
