A developer with a checkered past had a vision for a narrow plot of land in East Baltimore.

Ronald Lipscomb and his business partner wanted to build an apartment tower near the Johns Hopkins Hospital on a parcel that was owned by a quasi-governmental agency. There were three problems, though: The land was appraised at $5.25 million, Lipscomb needed money and the community had questions.

That’s when an influential state senator and East Baltimore Democrat, Cory McCray, stepped in and helped with all of it.

McCray, a board member of East Baltimore Development Inc., the agency that owned the land, pressured fellow board members and employees in 2021 to sell the land to Lipscomb’s firm for $1.35 million, according to emails sent among EBDI employees and reviewed by The Baltimore Banner.

Then McCray amended a state bond bill in 2023 to award a $1.44 million state grant to an unrelated nonprofit that acted as a pass-through for Lipscomb’s development.

With the funds secured, McCray personally represented the project to community members as affordable housing, even though it was always planned as market rate; he and Lipscomb presented an oversize novelty check that summer to a community leader with “affordable apartments” in the memo line.

Although it’s common for lawmakers to champion projects in their districts, the details of how McCray worked with Lipscomb, a man who was caught up in multiple corruption probes, are remarkable. McCray helped Lipscomb secure two massive breaks on this project. Lipscomb’s firm purchased the parcel for 25% of its appraised value. McCray routed almost the exact amount in state money to an intermediary for Lipscomb’s development.

During this period — from 2021 to 2024 — Baltimore underwent an apartment building boom, buoyed at first by historically low interest rates. Apartment complexes have sprung up across the city. Yet Lipscomb’s project has not broken ground.

“The city isn’t an easy place to do development,” McCray told The Banner in a phone interview, adding that he has zero concerns with giving state money to a Lipscomb project. “I have to offer, at some level, some type of incentives for developers to come to my neighborhood.”

In a follow-up email, McCray declined to describe his relationship with Lipscomb, saying only that he is a developer who works inside his legislative district. He denied pressuring EBDI to accept Lipscomb’s offer on the land.

Ties between the politician and the developer date to at least 2018, when McCray’s career took a leap forward with the then-delegate’s election to the state Senate. An East Baltimore hotel that Lipscomb developed hosted a victory party for McCray and his “Inner Cabinet,” campaign finance records show.

Firms controlled by Lipscomb donated $10,500 from 2021 to 2024 to McCray’s campaign fund. Over the same period, McCray’s campaign spent almost that same amount hosting events at Lipscomb’s hotel, campaign finance records show.

McCray, now the deputy majority whip with positions on key budget committees, held another fundraiser at the hotel this year. McCray posted photos online with Mayor Brandon Scott, state Comptroller Brooke Lierman, U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume and Howard County Executive Calvin Ball.

Despite repeated attempts to interview Lipscomb, he declined to answer questions about his East Baltimore projects.

Reached at his Prince George’s County residence, he described himself as a “minority partner” in the proposed apartment building and said it was inappropriate to come to his home.

“I don’t care what you write,” he added, before closing his door.

88 acres of East Baltimore

The hotel and the proposed apartment building are part of one of Baltimore’s most controversial and long-running urban revitalization efforts, which involved the displacement of hundreds of Black families near the Johns Hopkins University medical campus.

Lipscomb was involved from nearly the beginning.

State, city and university officials, along with other local stakeholders, took control of 88 acres of East Baltimore land in the early 2000s to redevelop it through EBDI, a newly created nonprofit.

The original idea — later abandoned in favor of housing — was to create a world-class biotech park in a historically disadvantaged neighborhood in partnership with Johns Hopkins and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

EBDI needed a master developer to oversee progress at the site, which was expected to have projects taking place on numerous parcels simultaneously. It selected a partnership between Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises and several local developers and minority builders.

The group, called the Forest City-New East Baltimore Partnership LLC, included Lipscomb.

But development sputtered and Lipscomb was coming into prosecutors’ crosshairs.

He was indicted in 2009 on charges of bribing a City Council member ahead of a crucial vote on a tax break for a Harbor East development. Lipscomb pleaded guilty that year to making an illegal campaign contribution. A judge sentenced him to probation and barred him from attending political events and donating to campaigns for three years.

During that investigation, Lipscomb told a grand jury he gave then-Mayor Sheila Dixon, whom he had dated, thousands of dollars, bought her Jimmy Choo shoes and paid for trips years earlier when she was City Council president and in position to give his projects tax breaks.Dixon was indicted for these and other allegations on charges of theft and perjury and eventually pleaded guilty to perjury and resigned as mayor.

Lipscomb was not charged in connection with her case. He shrank from public view and, in 2011, declared bankruptcy and dissolved his main company, Doracon. The state banned another of his companies — the one focused on East Baltimore development — from doing business.

Although he may have appeared to be on the outs, Lipscomb, a savvy operator with political connections from Baltimore City Council to the governor’s mansion in Annapolis, never went away.

Almost immediately after his bankruptcy, Lipscomb began laying the groundwork for a hotel inside EBDI’s footprint. Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels and then-Gov. Martin O’Malley wrote letters of support for the project when Lipscomb was marketing it to foreign investors, court records show.

The 15-story Residence Inn Baltimore at the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus opened in 2017. Construction was largely financed by Chinese nationals, who poured $47 million into the hotel, according to a lawsuit the investors filed in December, accusing Lipscomb and his associates of fraud.

This is the hotel that hosted McCray’s 2018 victory party, and at the same time McCray was celebrating his elevation to the Senate, Lipscomb and another developer, Larry Jennings, were making plans for a vacant lot 250 feet away.

They called their new venture Dahong Shuxing.

State money for Parcel B

EBDI’s master developer selected Dahong Shuxing LLC as its subdeveloper for Parcel B, a half-acre of land between Ashland Avenue and East Madison Street.

Before Dahong Shuxing could start developing Parcel B, the LLC needed to buy it.

Known for the pink building that used to sit on the plot, the parcel was appraised at $5.25 million in January 2021 by JLL, a real estate services company.

Dahong Shuxing bought the land for far less.

According to EBDI CEO Cheryl Washington, Dahong Shuxing initially offered less than $1 million for the parcel. Washington said a final sales price of $1.35 million was reached as part of negotiations over several parcels of land.

The sales price was consistent with other sales in the EBDI zone, Washington said.

Internal EBDI emails reviewed by The Banner, including one sent by Washington, offer a different explanation for the $1.35 million sales price.

Mayor Scott appointed McCray to EBDI’s board in April 2021, and McCray began pressuring the organization and its seven-member voting board to sell Parcel B at a much lower price than its $5.25 million appraisal.

“McCray was instrumental in persuading the board and other stakeholders to force EBDI to accept the $1.35M purchase price,” one employee wrote to Washington in 2023. The employee asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.

Washington responded in agreement.

“That claim is false, and I won’t give it undue credibility,” McCray told The Banner in an email.

With a contract to buy the land in place, Lipscomb and Jennings went before the city’s architectural review board in fall 2022 to unveil their plans. A seven-story, 127-unit, market-rate apartment building would rise from the empty lot at Parcel B. They just needed money to begin.

During the 2023 legislative session, McCray offered an amendment to a state bond bill, redirecting $1 million in state funds originally meant for the Kennedy Krieger Institute, along with $440,000 in new money, which the legislature approved. That money would now go toward the Ashland Madison Apartment Project, which is what Lipscomb and Jennings had begun calling Dahong Shuxing’s development.

Instead of directing the money to EBDI — as he did in the past — or to Dahong Shuxing itself, McCray’s amendment directed the money to C.A.R.E. Community Association Inc., a small neighborhood nonprofit in East Baltimore.

The language allocating the money was broad, allowing the nonprofit to reimburse the developers for an array of costs related to the Ashland Madison Apartments.

C.A.R.E. had never done a development project of any kind; the nonprofit handles fewer than $50,000 a year, tax records show. It focuses on cleaning and greening the neighborhood around the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

In an interview, C.A.R.E. President Cynthia Gross said she got involved in the Ashland Madison Apartments project after “somebody in politics” — she does not remember who — introduced her to Lipscomb in early 2023.

Lipscomb said C.A.R.E. would have a role in shaping the project, according to Gross.

“We thought it would be an opportunity to learn,” Gross said, adding that she was not familiar with Lipscomb’s past. The proposed partnership was novel for a community association that, Gross said, is used to having development done to it, not with it.

In June 2023, Gross accepted the giant novelty check in front of a packed room at the American Brewery building in East Baltimore with McCray and Lipscomb standing alongside her. Despite the “affordable apartments” memo line, the contract between Dahong Shuxing and EBDI is for a market-rate building.

A week after the ceremonial presentation, Lipscomb, through one of his companies, donated $2,500 to McCray’s campaign, records show.

Gross said she quickly realized that neither she nor anyone else in C.A.R.E. would have a voice in Dahong Shuxing’s planned development. She pulled her nonprofit out of the project, and C.A.R.E. never saw a dime of that money.

“When you’re a woman in a room full of men or on a call, you don’t get heard,” Gross said.

Gross said she never knew exactly what the money was meant for. Neither did EBDI.

‘Let’s discuss internally’

No EBDI employees attended the check presentation to Gross, and it was weeks later when they learned McCray’s bond bill amendment had awarded state money to the Lipscomb and Jennings project.

That set off alarm bells for some employees who, in July and August 2023, raised ethical concerns to the CEO, emails show.

McCray had signed an EBDI form saying he had no conflicts of interest to disclose. But the employees were concerned that McCray, as a board member, had violated their conflict of interest policy by directing state money to the Ashland Madison Apartment project without informing EBDI or other board members of his actions.

Washington, in an email to her staff, said she asked Google AI for advice on “how to handle a board member’s failure to disclose.”

Washington and her staff also were uneasy that a market-rate housing development was set to receive taxpayer money under the guise of the project being affordable apartments.

The employee who asked not to be identified emailed McCray raising these concerns and asking how the money would be used. In response, McCray sent a link to a webpage explaining how the state budgeting process works.

“I am confused on how you want me to respond,” McCray wrote. “There is a project and there is an appropriation.”

That employee then emailed Washington, saying Lipscomb could be intentionally misleading community members.

“We have knowledge of this project being passed off as an affordable project,” the employee wrote.

“Let’s discuss amd be strategic about our next steps,” Washington replied. “As has been done in the past, we know folks will hang EBDI out to dry no matter how this plays out so we should be very careful as we proceed.”

In an email to The Banner, McCray said he thought the project included “an affordable housing component.”

“If that has changed, I would expect the developer to provide clarification,” he wrote.

McCray has a track record of securing funds for projects in his district, including other developments within EBDI. Washington told The Banner in an email last week that, upon further review, EBDI staff and McCray determined that there was “no obligation for the legislative award to be disclosed to EBDI’s board.”

However, some EBDI staff members were so concerned in 2023 that they considered asking Lipscomb to draft a document that laid out his financing for the Ashland Madison development, emails show. It’s unclear if that request ever made it to Lipscomb.

The EBDI employee who asked not to be identified wrote in an August 2023 email that McCray’s actions were especially concerning, given his role in lowering the sales price of Parcel B and his hands-on approach to the nonprofit’s day-to-day business.

“He expects full transparency and information for everything we do and he never shared these bills he was sponsoring with us or with the board,” the employee wrote to Washington.

“Those are my concerns too and let’s discuss internally first before legal counsel,” Washington wrote back that same day. “politics adds an even deeper level of trickiness.”

In a different email thread at the time, Washington asked an attorney for legal guidance.

“The memo should include your recommendations for what EBDI should do to protect itself,” Washington wrote.

Despite internal hesitations, neither Washington nor any other EBDI officials raised these issues publicly.

When Dahong Shuxing missed its first deadline to break ground in March 2024, EBDI granted a nine-month extension.

But another problem needed solving. Disillusioned with Lipscomb, Gross had pulled C.A.R.E. out of the project the previous summer.

“We initially attempted to work with C.A.R.E. to build internal infrastructure, but they lacked capacity,” McCray told The Banner in an email. “The grant was then redirected to a partner positioned to meet the project’s requirements and timeline.”

During the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers approved McCray’s amendment to the bond bills, which sent the money to the Market Center Community Development Corp., a nonprofit that does work in downtown Baltimore.

In April 2024, Dahong Shuxing closed its deal to purchase Parcel B for $1.35 million, receiving a $1.77 million construction loan from a Baltimore-based mortgage lender, records show. Scott appointed his close ally, Calvin Young, as chairman of the EBDI board, and in June the board appointed McCray as its treasurer.

The next month, a different firm connected to Lipscomb, SR Consulting, donated $3,500 to McCray’s campaign.

There was just one more hurdle to clear. In October, the state Board of Public Works approved without discussion the $1.44 million grant — the final step in any bond award — for the Ashland Madison Apartment project, now with the Market Center CDC as the intermediary. The agenda noted that the money “may” be used for an affordable apartment building.

Wendy Blair, a real estate professional who chairs the Market Center CDC, said her organization is essentially a pass-through for the $1.44 million of state money.

“We’re helping them to get the project done,” Blair said. “It’s a big project.”

Hey, Google, what’s ‘Big Red’ in Chinese?

As of December, the state government had disbursed more than $560,000 to the Market Center CDC to reimburse Dahong Shuxing for expenses including design and consulting, public records show.

Two other notable events took place in December. Dahong Shuxing missed its second construction deadline, and dozens of Chinese investors sued Lipscomb and others for allegedly defrauding them of $47 million.

The Chinese investors, who largely financed the hotel in the EBDI footprint, claim Lipscomb did not fully disclose multiple conflicts of interest and that he allowed and encouraged his business partners to inflate construction and development costs. Immediately after financing closed, the lawsuit said, Lipscomb and his partners started spending more than $2.8 million to pay “fees” from companies controlled or owned by Lipscomb.

Lipscomb has not responded to the allegations, court records show.

Although Lipscomb declined to answer questions, his partner on the apartment project, Jennings, spoke at length about Dahong Shuxing. The company’s name translates to “Big Red” in Chinese, and red is a symbol of good fortune in China. But Jennings said the proposed apartment building has never been marketed to Chinese investors or “anyone at all.”

According to Jennings, the project’s name is an homage to the demolished pink building that had been on the site. He thought it would be fun to call it “Big Red” in Chinese, Jennings said, and he plugged that phrase into Google Translate to come up with Dahong Shuxing.

He said construction delays were normal and that shovels won’t hit the ground until interest rates go down. Later, Jennings reversed himself and said Dahong Shuxing will “absolutely” break ground this year.

When asked why the project needed the $1.44 million subsidy, Jennings said he didn’t have to answer questions.

“Good luck with your story,” Jennings said last month. “Nobody cares.”

Last week, Dahong Shuxing missed its third construction deadline. EBDI is in the process of granting another extension.