The crowd of onlookers took cover from the rain inside the Italian market, where the auctioneer told everyone they had a rare chance to snap up one of Baltimore’s most scenic properties.

“On a clear day, you can literally see for miles,” auctioneer Daniel Billig told the crowd.

For sale was Harborview Marina, a gem of the South Baltimore waterfront offering clear views across the Inner Harbor.

The auctioneer was trying to stoke the crowd. But there was just one bid, and the public auction was over within moments.

Dr. Selvin Passen will remain the marina’s owner for now. The lone bid of $2.9 million was made on his behalf as the mortgage holder. The bid was the same amount as the debt on the marina in court records.

Passen and his attorney watched from the back and declined to comment.

The sale Wednesday afternoon betrayed none of the legal drama that has played out behind the scenes.

A Baltimore judge denied a last-minute attempt to block the foreclosure auction. Attorneys for Harborview’s minority owner, Richard Swirnow, tried to intervene in the foreclosure case on Friday, asking a judge to grant a temporary restraining order to stop the sale.

Late Tuesday night, Baltimore Circuit Judge Martin Schreiber II denied Swirnow’s attempt to intervene, ruling that the minority member of the ownership group does not have standing to stop the foreclosure sale.

Swirnow is accusing Passen, his longtime business partner on the marina, of intentionally pushing the property into foreclosure as part of a plan to seize complete control.

The two wealthy businessmen have been fighting over the marina for almost a decade. Swirnow famously developed Harborview on the South Baltimore waterfront. His entity owned 40% of the marina. An entity for Passen, the doctor turned developer and marina owner, controlled 60%.

The judge’s order cleared the way for the public auction to proceed on-site. The rain pushed the crowd of mostly onlookers and neighbors into Di Pasquale’s Italian Market. Afterward, they went for lunch and there was chatter about it all being uneventful.

In the spring, Harborview managers abruptly evicted all of the boaters and closed the 278-slip marina, blaming unsafe conditions of the concrete pier. The emergency closure was met with skepticism and frustration around the docks.

Harborview was one of the few marinas in the Baltimore area that catered to liveaboards; some couples had resided on their boats there for more than a decade. Neighbors were upset, too. Families often walked along the pier or dined there, and the marina was once home to the kitschy, floating bar known as the Tiki Barge.

Swirnow’s side has argued in court filings that the emergency closure was a pretense for a power grab by Passen. Since 2015, at least, the two men have been fighting over whether to sell Harborview or to buy each other out.

Old emails filed in court documents Friday by Swirnow show that the partners’ dealings had not always been fraught with accusations of fraud, bullying and bad-faith negotiations.

“We have been going back and forth for a long time,” Swirnow wrote Passen in February 2019. “I do think that us coming to resolution is long overdue. And, I also think we need to get all the marina issues resolved for the sake of our children and grandchildren. Long gone are the days when my children babysat for your children, but the memories are still good.”

Attorneys for Swirnow have singled out a sequence of financial maneuvers by Passen that preceded the evictions. In August, the doctor registered a new company in Florida to buy the mortgages on the Baltimore marina. Then his marina missed the monthly payments on these mortgages.

Next, the doctor filed papers to foreclose on himself, saying in court records that his marina owes his new company almost $2.9 million.

Two weeks ago, Swirnow sued him and accused him of intentionally making the business go bust as part of a plan to squeeze out the minority partner. He alleges the endgame is for Passen to buy back the marina at auction for below-market value.

With the marina sold, there are signs the litigation will continue. By Wednesday afternoon, Swirnow’s attorneys had notified the court of their intent to appeal.