Poppleton developer La Cité is being forced to sell the only buildings it completed in the struggling West Baltimore neighborhood after a major investor filed a lawsuit this summer, new court records show.

The 262-unit, two-building apartment complex called Center\West, which opened in 2019, was supposed to be the first piece of a long-planned major revitalization of Poppleton. La Cité has not finished any other of its planned projects. And Center\West has struggled to attract renters, cycled through multiple management companies and never delivered a long-promised grocery store.

This week, a broker listed the complex for sale, without disclosing an asking price.

Dan Bythewood, president of La Cité, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. In a statement this week to the Baltimore Business Journal, he said, “We believe the timing is right to sell, given the favorable market conditions.”

There is another reason to sell: An investment firm in Boston wants its money back.

Arctaris Impact Investors filed a lawsuit in August trying to claw back a $13.1 million investment in La Cité. That money was supposed to support the next phase of development in Poppleton — a proposed apartment building for older adults — but construction hasn’t started.

Citing numerous “badly missed” milestones and a lack of progress, Arctaris alleged that La Cité had broken their contract and triggered a “forced sale” event, allegations that La Cité rebutted in legal filings.

In legal filings in September, Arctaris said La Cite had come to a temporary agreement. But in a joint motion filed last week, Arctaris said La Cité had decided to honor the “forced sale” clause in its agreement, and that a “Forced Sale Payment Date” was set for Dec. 30.

If La Cité doesn’t make the payment by that day, the filing said more litigation could be coming.

Center\West, made up of two buildings called Avra and Cirro, comes with complications.

The buildings owe the city a combined water bill of more than $730,000, and the issue of unpaid water bills has rankled city officials for well over a year.

Construction of the complex was funded almost entirely by a $56 million loan insured by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Whoever buys Center\West would assume that loan.

In a statement, HUD said any sale of the apartment complex would first require a review and approval by the agency. The agency said it has not been notified by La Cité that it intends to sell the property.

Despite opening Center\West about five years ago, La Cité hasn’t started repaying the principal of that $56 million loan, according to a federal database. Meanwhile, financial disclosures show that La Cité and its partners put an additional $15 million into the project.

As of this fall, much of apartment complex remains vacant, according to financial disclosures. About 40% of the complex’s market-rate units are vacant. None of the ground-floor retail space is occupied.

Frustrated by what city officials called delays and shortcomings in the redevelopment of Poppleton, Baltimore terminated its longstanding exclusive development rights agreement with La Cité this summer.

A group of neighborhood residents filed a lawsuit in August against La Cité, Bythewood and several city officials and agencies.

The residents argue that the city improperly used eminent domain when it agreed to give the politically connected developer a huge swath of their neighborhood.

That agreement between La Cité and the city should have never been made, the lawsuit says, and residents have filed a notice that the ownership of that land — including the current sites of Avra and Cirro — is in question. The notice, called a “lis pendens,” is similar to a property lien.

Still, Bythewood sounded upbeat in October, when he took the stage at an annual festival celebrating Edgar Allan Poe, whose small former home in Poppleton is now a museum.

“This has been an amazing journey for me, for my family, for my partners, for my neighborhood partners to transform this neighborhood to allow things like this to happen,” Bythewood told the crowd. “We look forward to many years to come.”