The owner of Baltimore’s Power Plant is suing the Dick’s Last Resort restaurant for hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid rent, according to a court filing from Tuesday.
The Inner Harbor bar and restaurant, part of chain known for comically mocking customers, announced its closure in September. At the time, Power Plant operator Cordish Companies said it had offered the business “significant rent concessions,” but that it opted to close anyway.
The business had suffered from reduced foot traffic due to the coronavirus pandemic, Cordish said. On the way out the door, though, a representative for the company that owns Dick’s said city crime had more to do with its exit than economic strains from COVID-19.
“Downtown Baltimore is a complete hellhole dumpster fire of violence and danger,” wrote Ryan Carlson, director of operations for Deja Vu Services Inc., in an email to The Baltimore Sun. “Nobody in their right mind would operate a business there.”
In the suit, lawyers for Cordish Power Plant Number 2 LLC say Dick’s last paid rent in March 2020, despite the fact that its lease extends through June 2022. The suit names Dick’s Last Resort of Baltimore and several other firms tied to the restaurant as defendants.
The restaurant has missed more than $226,000 worth of rent and other payments dating back to March, and would owe another $250,000 through the end of the contract, the filing said. Including damages, Cordish is suing Dick’s and its guarantors in U.S. District Court of Maryland for about $581,000.
In 2017, an entity called MCC Resort Baltimore LLC assumed control of the lease, but Dick’s Last Resort of Baltimore and other companies agreed to remain liable to the landlord, according to filing.
The first issues arose in January 2020, according to the suit, when Dick’s failed to pay all it owed, including rent and fees for common area maintenance, utilities and trash.
Dick’s had rented the 6,248-square-foot space in Power Plant for 10 years. Shortly before Dick’s announced its intention to close in September, Barnes & Noble, another major tenant in the building, had shuttered.
A Cordish representative had vowed to replace Dick’s with a “better” tenant after the incendiary comments from Deja Vu.
“We will work to replace this tenant with a far better use, one that shares our love of the City and our optimism that the best is yet to come,” said David Cordish, chairman and CEO of The Cordish Companies, at the time.
The companies involved could not be reached for comment Wednesday. A representative of Dick’s, National Registered Agents Inc. of Maryland, declined to comment on the suit.