Enter through the lobby, go past the elderly patient on oxygen, take the elevator to the top, make a left — a right will lead you to a mechanical room blocked off by caution tape — and step into the bar.

The sterile decor matches the extended-stay hotel that takes up the 15 floors below. Order a glass of Barefoot wine (it’s the only brand they serve) and soak in the view of a neighboring building’s HVAC units.

Step out onto the terrace of “Baltimore’s Premier Roof Top Dining Destination” with a $12 beer and watch the sun set behind the city skyline, partially blocked by Johns Hopkins Hospital. Maybe eat a “Hopkins Burger,” which is a cheeseburger, or the “Fells Point Flatbread,” a basic cheese pizza.

This, it turns out, is one of the premier destinations for Maryland’s Democratic elite. Washington, you can keep your Mayflower Hotel and Army Navy Club upscale fundraising venues. Maryland politicians have 16 on the Park at the Residence Inn Baltimore at the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus.

Whether it was then-City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young shortly after 16 on the Park opened in 2017, or now-U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks during last year’s Senate primary, Democrats have repeatedly turned to the restaurant for fundraising and campaign events, campaign finance records show. Gov. Wes Moore has had two fundraisers there. In the days immediately after those events, his campaign raised more than $100,000, records show.

The hotel is located in Eager Park, a neighborhood that’s being redeveloped — the restaurant website describes the area as “up and coming” — as part of East Baltimore Development Inc., or EBDI. The city-backed effort displaced hundreds of Black families. While new buildings like the hotel have been built, much of the project remains unfinished.

So why are Maryland’s Democratic glitterati flocking to an extended-stay hotel whose other primary clientele are hospital patients and their families?

Consider the hotel’s origins and the names attached to it.

Terry Lierman, a former chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer and father of Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman, was once part of the development’s ownership group. His name, along with then-Gov. Martin O’Malley’s and Johns Hopkins President Ron Daniels’, was used on marketing materials as the project leaders sought foreign investors.

And Ron Lipscomb, a businessman with a dubious past and a propensity for generous campaign donations, spearheaded the hotel’s development and, until recently, was part of its ownership group. Lipscomb, and entities associated with him, have donated a quarter-million dollars to campaigns since 2017, records show. The Lipscomb largess has washed over politicians who book the Residence Inn for events — and the generosity has gone both ways.

One example: Lipscomb donated $10,500 to state Sen. Cory McCray’s campaign during 2021-2024; McCray, in turn, spent almost the exact same amount on events at the Residence Inn, records show.

Altogether, politicians have spent more than $30,000 in campaign cash at the hotel and its top-floor restaurant since its opening, according to campaign finance records. Most of that spending has involved McCray, whose district includes the hotel. Campaign finance records show McCray has held or sponsored at least 10 events there since his election to the Senate in 2018.

McCray and Lipscomb’s relationship — which both parties have refused to comment on — was the subject of a recent article in The Baltimore Banner which detailed how McCray helped Lipscomb secure a parcel of land near the hotel for far less than its appraised value. Lipscomb and other business partners have plans to build an apartment complex there.

McCray also directed state grant funding to the apartment project while representing it as an “affordable” development to the community, even though it was always planned as market-rate.

McCray wrote in an email to The Banner that he chooses event venues within his district in order to “highlight local businesses and stimulate economic opportunity.”

But Lipscomb is no ordinary hotel developer.

Wrapped up in a series of wide-ranging corruption probes some 15 years ago, Lipscomb pleaded guilty to making an illegal campaign contribution to a City Council member in a case involving allegations of bribery. As part of his sentence, the judge in 2009 banned him for three years from making political donations and attending political events.

In the years after that ban was lifted, Lipscomb became one of Maryland’s most generous political contributors. Personally, and through firms he controls, Lipscomb has donated $249,840 since 2017 to mostly Democratic campaigns and causes, federal and state finance records show.

During that time, politicians frequented the hotel. As the newly minted Democratic nominee for governor, Moore held a fundraiser there in August 2022 alongside State Sen. Antonio Hayes and Del. Stephanie Smith. The Moore campaign took in $85,000 in the two days afterward, records show, though the reports do not show much was raised from that fundraiser specifically.

Moore held a thank-you for top donors at the Residence Inn in January 2023, two weeks before he was sworn in as governor. Former U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin was in attendance, video posted on social media shows. Moore’s campaign took in $13,400 around that period.

In July 2023, former Baltimore Councilman Robert Stokes’ campaign paid to host an event at the Residence Inn for the Maryland Democratic Party’s State Central Committee, records show.

And in February 2024, when Alsobrooks was in the thick of the Democratic primary against former U.S. Rep. David Trone, McCray’s campaign paid $2,500 for a fundraiser that was attended by a bevy of prominent Democrats.

Brooke Lierman, U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, City Councilmembers Mark Conway and Tony Glover, Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, Baltimore Comptroller Bill Henry and then-Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. were all photographed at the event. Alsobrooks’ campaign took in more than $37,000 around that period, records show.

McCray held a pre-legislative session fundraiser earlier this year that saw Mayor Brandon Scott, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball, Mfume, Brooke Lierman and others in attendance, photos and video show.

Lipscomb himself attended at least one of the political gatherings.

In March 2023, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development posted on Facebook about the “stunning views” from 16 on the Park. Photos showed Housing Secretary Jake Day and some of his staff meeting with McCray, Lipscomb and Larry Jennings, a developer working with Lipscomb and McCray on the nearby apartment complex.

McCray’s campaign paid $1,241 for that event.

Despite the parade of politicos, the hotel is struggling financially. After years of lackluster revenue and vacant rooms, a lender foreclosed on the property last summer.

In December, a group of Chinese nationals filed a wide-ranging lawsuit, alleging that Lipscomb and his associates defrauded them of their $47 million investment.

The hotel cost about $87 million to develop, court records show. Two months ago, it was sold at auction for $10 million. The Chinese investors called the sale price “unconscionably low” and are contesting it in court.

Lipscomb has not responded to the allegations, court records show

The investors were participating in a federal EB-5 visa program, which offers wealthy foreigners a pathway to U.S. residency. Investors were allegedly promised annual payouts and a return on investment.

The investors, who each put $500,000 into the project, said Lipscomb, an executive from Colorado-based construction company Hensel Phelps and other business partners visited China a decade ago to market the project to Chinese nationals.

Terry Lierman was part of the development’s original ownership group, RC Investors, along with Lipscomb and Alan Smith, the owner of a Maryland construction equipment rental company, according to marketing materials and court records.

Terry Lierman said he did not join Lipscomb on any marketing trip to China, did not profit from the project and is no longer involved.

“I never had a percentage ownership in anything,” Terry Lierman told The Banner earlier this summer, adding that he was unaware of the fraud lawsuit.

The Chinese investors named Lipscomb and Smith, but not Terry Lierman, in their lawsuit, which remains pending.

The investors’ attorney, Ramsay Whitworth, a partner at Silverman Thompson, did not respond to a request for comment.

But Terry Lierman’s name and political connections were included on marketing materials circulated to the investors. He was chairman of the state Democratic Party from 2004 to 2007. He left that job to become chief of staff to Hoyer from 2007 to 2011, during which time Hoyer was the majority leader.

After leaving Hoyer’s office, Lierman joined RC Investors and another company — Chesapeake Regional Center — that facilitated the EB-5 visa investment.

“I went to a few meetings, maybe five, six years ago,” Lierman said. He said he hasn’t had a conversation about the hotel in a few years. “I got busy doing other business.”

Asked why he went in with Lipscomb on RC Investors and the Chesapeake Regional Center in the first place, Lierman called it a “silly question.”

“Ron Lipscomb is my best friend in the world,” Lierman said. “He’s probably one of the most honest people I’ve ever met.”