{"id":11572061,"date":"2025-07-22T13:57:38","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T17:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/?p=11572061"},"modified":"2025-07-24T18:37:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T22:37:28","slug":"brandon-chasen-companies-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/07\/22\/brandon-chasen-companies-bankruptcy\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasen Cos. bankruptcy: Executives made roughly $10K a week amid collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Brandon Chasen’s real estate empire began to collapse<\/a>, the construction wing of his Baltimore development company paid him a salary of over $21,000 every other week, according to financial disclosures recently filed in its bankruptcy case.<\/p>\n

The payments, equating to an annual salary of over $500,000, lasted until mid-November, after multiple contractors had asked for courts to enter over a million dollars worth of judgments for unpaid labor and materials, according to court filings.<\/p>\n

Those were only the beginning of the claims from suppliers and contractors that brought Chasen Companies to its financial collapse. Bankruptcy filings show that Chasen’s construction wing is now in millions of dollars of debt, while its development projects are being abandoned and real estate being auctioned off. Though the company listed its debts in its financial disclosures, creditors have noted concerns about the firm’s private jet<\/a> and demanded that company representatives show up to testify under oath. They’re also pushing for a court to order Chasen himself<\/a>, in addition to his companies, into bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

The court filing surrounding Chasen’s financial affairs provides the clearest glimpse yet into the unraveling of Chasen’s real estate empire, which plunged into bankruptcy as contractors demanded payment for work and materials used in ambitious development projects. Last year, a bank filed to foreclose<\/a> on One Calvert Plaza, the 16-story downtown building that Chasen was working to renovate.<\/a> But the disclosures show that top executives continued to make ample salaries: Chasen’s business partner made a salary of over $9,600 per week, while the firm’s chief operating officer made over $6,700.<\/p>\n

\"Rusted
Rusted rebar, spray paint cans and other deserted construction equipment line the sidewalk of the 1400 block of Aliceanna Street, the site of an abandoned Chasen Companies development. (Dan Belson\/Staff)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The construction wing of Chasen Cos. was forced into involuntary bankruptcy<\/a> in April, and now, more Chasen properties are set to be auctioned off<\/a>. Chasen and his company’s attorney did not return requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The financial disclosure schedules do not mention a private jet previously registered to the company that creditors said might have improperly been sold or placed into a trust amid the firm’s financial woes.<\/p>\n

The firm’s creditors include Sandy Spring Bank, which says Chasen owes it over $28 million in unsecured debt, and other contractors claiming other unpaid debts. They have pushed for Chasen to explain why his firm transferred ownership of the company’s $5 million jet in March to TVPX Aircraft Solutions, a trust that offers \u201cprivacy enhancement\u201d for plane titles. The transfer was not mentioned in Chasen Construction’s bankruptcy filing, though it listed a $200,000 debt to an aviation business in Easton.<\/p>\n

The creditors suggested in court filings that Chasen was either trying to sell the plane and abscond with the proceeds, or keep it out of reach from the bankruptcy case.<\/p>\n

Federal Aviation Administration records list no plane under the jet’s old registration number, though a plane with the same model and serial number as Chasen Construction’s old jet is listed as being registered to TVPX. That jet flew 1,950 miles, from Texas to Maine, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The transfer of the private jet, and executive compensation, “are things that the U.S. Trustee will definitely ask about” at a meeting of creditors scheduled for August, said Steven Berman, a Florida-based bankruptcy attorney with the business law firm Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick.<\/p>\n

The financial statement filed in that case lists biweekly salary payments dating back to only May 2024. At that point, the earliest cases demanding debts had been filed in state courts. The document’s contents, which detail the company’s current finances as well as transfers in the months leading up to the bankruptcy case, will likely be at the center of the upcoming meeting of creditors. The company missed the first scheduled date for that meeting, where a representative for the construction company is required to answer questions under oath, and it’s now rescheduled for late August.<\/p>\n

At those meetings, also known as 341 meetings, the U.S. trustee will ask “generally” about the company’s assets, liabilities, operations and what led to the bankruptcy, said Berman \u2014 “Were they in negotiations for financing that fell through? Did they have environmental problems in the development process? Was there some major external event that affected the business’s viability?”<\/p>\n

Though usually those meetings are focused on getting to the heart of a company’s financial problems, “you can get a lot of interesting questions that may be outside the scope of what’s intended,” said David G. Sommer, an attorney with Baltimore-based law firm Gallagher Evelius & Jones.<\/p>\n

There will likely be questions about how the principals have been running the business. Chasen’s compensation will likely be looked at by creditors and the bankruptcy court, especially if it’s seen as excessive, Berman said. What counts as excessive, he said, comes down to the facts and circumstances.<\/p>\n

While over $10,000 per week might not be excessive “for an executive running a nationwide business,” it’d be more inappropriate for a failing firm, depending on its size and the scope of the executives’ responsibilities, Berman said.<\/p>\n

“If [the salaries] are extremely outside the market, that would raise some yellow flags,” Sommer said. “Particularly if they were taking those salaries, you know, even while the debtor was really struggling financially to meet its other obligations.”<\/p>\n

The financial schedules say that the construction firm has over $39.5 million in liabilities and $0 in assets. Its bank account has been left with a negative balance due to being garnished. In 2023, the firm had over $77 million in gross revenue; the next year, it had just over a third of that. And in 2025, it reported $0 in revenue.<\/p>\n

“It’s disappointing that these projects didn’t succeed,” said Sommer, who noted that the fall of Chasen has left “some conspicuous unfinished projects in an important part of Baltimore.”<\/p>\n

He said he’d be interested in seeing if resolving the bankruptcies can turn some of the abandoned projects “into lemonade.”<\/p>\n

Have a news tip? Contact Dan Belson at\u00a0dbelson@baltsun.com,\u00a0 on X as @DanBelson_ or on Signal as @danbels.62.<\/em><\/p>\n