Chasen Cos., a Baltimore development firm that gained steam during the pandemic housing boom, faces new legal trouble after a bank alleged it defaulted on a nearly $14 million loan.

Court records filed this month show that a company subsidiary, which owns one property on the 500 block of South Broadway and two others behind it on the 500 block of South Regester Street, failed to make payments on a $13.7 million loan from PeoplesBank, a Pennsylvania-based lender that has since merged with Orrstown Bank.

It’s the third time since September that Chasen Cos. has faced a foreclosure filing over its Baltimore properties, and at least a dozen contractors and vendors also have alleged nonpayment in lawsuits.

Representatives for Chasen Cos. did not respond to a request for comment.

Trustees for the bank wrote in legal filings that in addition to stopping payments last year, Chasen Cos. also violated the agreement by halting work on the project. The trustees also referenced the company’s challenges elsewhere, citing “material adverse changes in their financial conditions” as evidenced by the Maryland-based Sandy Spring Bank obtaining judgments against the company.

Orrstown Bank gave Chasen Cos. and its founders, Brandon Chasen and Paul Davis, a deadline of Dec. 13 to begin satisfying their obligations, according to court documents. But Chasen Cos. offered no such relief, the bank trustees allege. To date, the real estate firm owes more than $4.6 million on the loan and is accruing as much as $1,317 a day in interest, the documents say.

The company owns as many as 2,000 housing units across its portfolio in Baltimore, Virginia and Florida and agreed to strict loan terms that allow the bank to automatically enter judgment in the event of a default. That’s what also led to judgments on the One Calvert Plaza skyscraper in Downtown Baltimore and 1400 Aliceanna St., and banks have moved to foreclose on the buildings.

Chasen Cos., which has offices in Fells Point and was as recently as a year ago poised to become a dominant landlord in that neighborhood, has stopped working on many of its projects.

The Baltimore Business Journal reported in late 2022 that Chasen Cos. planned to flip the vacant lots on South Broadway and South Regester into a mixed-use retail and luxury housing building called The Brooks. Online property records show the company purchased the lots for about $1.75 million and advertised them as a five-story, ground-up project that would feature 49 luxury apartments.

Today, the empty lots near the Broadway Market are cordoned off by metal fences. Inside, piles of bricks, rubble and concrete chunks are all that are visible.

Baltimore Banner reporter Greg Morton contributed to this story.