Mariner Bank

1st Mariner parent's loss in 4Q widens to $9 million Baltimore-based First Mariner Bancorp, parent company of 1st Mariner Bank, reported yesterday a fourth-quarter loss of $9.06 million, or $1.40 per share, as it continued to be hammered by the weak mortgage industry. The year before, the company had a fourth-quarter loss of $2.7 million, or 43 cents per share. The bank had $8.5 million in bad-loan write-downs, foreclosure costs and loan charge-offs in the quarter. The company said in a regulatory filing this month that 1st Mariner Bank posted a fourth-quarter loss of $14.9 million as it continued to struggle with soured real estate loans but was able to maintain its capital levels with infusions from its holding company.

Several executives at 1st Mariner Bancorp, including Chairman and CEO Edwin F. Hale Sr., took pay cuts of as much as 10 percent last year as the financial company suffered significant losses from bad loans. Hale, who started 1st Mariner in 1995, earned a base salary of $522,000 last year, compared with $580,000 the year before, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company's chief operating officer and the executive vice president and chief financial officer also reported 10 percent pay reductions, while another executive vice president took a 3 percent pay cut. The pay reductions come as the company's banking arm, 1st Mariner Bank, has continued to suffer from soured real estate loans and is operating under an informal supervisory agreement with federal regulators.

New positionsPellegrini a vice president at Lucent TechnologiesLucent Technologies has named John M. Pellegrini vice president at its global service provider business office in Linthicum. Formerly with Western Electric Co., the Baltimore native is an engineering/physics graduate of Loyola College and lives in Highland.AdvertisingVoss, McPherson join Crosby MarketingCrosby Marketing Communications announced that Dennis Voss and Michael McPherson have joined the Annapolis-based regional ad and marketing agency.

New positionsSchnitzlein operations VP for Royal FarmsRoyal Farms, the Baltimore-based chain of convenience stores, appointed Albert H. Schnitzlein as vice president of operations.The Towson University graduate formerly was an executive vice president for Hardee's Food System Inc. He began his fast-food industry career in Towson as a counterman with the old Gino's hamburger chain.Comcast names Gordon public affairs directorComcast Cablevision named Jim Gordon, a Towson University graduate, director of government and public affairs for the metropolitan Baltimore area.

First Mariner Bancorp reported yesterday that profit rose 38.7 percent in the third quarter, driven by increases in loans and revenue from service fees.The parent of First Mariner Bank made $250,968 in the quarter that ended Sept. 30, or 7 cents per diluted share, compared with $180,991, or 4 cents per share, for the corresponding period a year earlier.First Mariner's profit rose 42.8 percent to $694,124, or 20 cents per diluted share in the first nine months of the year, compared with profit of $486,233, or 14 cents per diluted share in the 1998 period.

Peerce's Plantation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, hours before a scheduled foreclosure auction that would have added it to the list of area restaurants to have closed in the last few months.The restaurant's lawyer said he anticipates that the court will allow the 62-year-old picturesque restaurant to continue operating while undergoing reorganization."To employees and customers it is business as usual," said Lawrence Yumkas, partner with Rosenberg, Proutt, Funk & Greenberg LLP of Baltimore.

First Mariner Bancorp, the Baltimore parent of First Mariner Bank, reported a 20 percent increase in first-quarter earnings per share yesterday and powerful growth in total assets, a key measurement of a bank's size and health.First Mariner said it earned $201,537, or 6 cents per share, for the quarter that ended March 31, up from earnings of $151,342, or 5 cents per share, for the same period last year. Total assets increased to $537.7 million -- a balance-sheet increase of 103.8 percent from a year ago."

AdvertisingErin Duggan joins Eisner as senior account executiveEisner & Associates Inc. hired Erin Duggan as a senior account executive. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro graduate formerly was Tanger Factory Outlets senior marketing executive.Difillipantonio, Dobyski take posts at StrategixStrategix appointed Kristin Difillipantonio production manager and Dave Dobyski as art director for the Woodlawn marketing and advertising firm. Difillipantonio, a graduate of the University of South Carolina, has been with the firm since 1997, when it acquired Hartt & Co., her former employer.

First Mariner Bancorp Inc. continued its torrid growth in the fourth quarter, with the company reporting yesterday that net income nearly quadrupled in the three months ending Dec. 31.The Baltimore-based parent company of First Mariner Bank said it had quarterly net income of $636,876, or 21 cents per share.For the same quarter of the previous year, the company had $174,060 in net income, or 7 cents per share.The quarterly earnings exceeded analysts' expectations, and First Mariner's stock gained 25 cents to close at $12.Annual profit tripledFor the year, First Mariner posted net income of $1.12 million, or 36 cents per share.

First Mariner Bancorp, the Baltimore parent of First Mariner Bank, reported yesterday a nearly 60 percent increase in second-quarter net income and assets.First Mariner said it earned $241,619, or 8 cents a share, for the quarter that ended June 30, up from $153,595, or 5 cents a share, for the same period last year. Assets increased to $563.1 million from $353.0 million.The banking company also said its board of directors declared a cash dividend of 2 cents a common share payable Aug. 31 to shareholders of record on Aug. 17."

The last time regulators ordered Ed Hale to fix a money-losing bank or have it seized by the government was the early 1990s. The trucking executive had gained control of the Bank of Baltimore, which lent itself into trouble in the last real estate crash. Hale and other dissident shareholders took over the board, pulled the bank from a pit and made millions of dollars when they sold it to First Fidelity a couple of years later. Now that 1st Mariner Bank is in the same flavor of soup, Hale is suggesting he can pull off a similar rescue.

In the latest sign of trouble, 1st Mariner Bank said Monday that it has been placed under more intense federal supervision as Baltimore's largest independent bank continues to struggle with soured real estate loans and its inability to raise cash. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Maryland Division of Financial Regulation issued a "cease and desist" order Friday, according to documents filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, requiring 1st Mariner to devise a plan to improve its capital, liquidity and earnings and deal with problem loans.

Several executives at 1st Mariner Bancorp, including Chairman and CEO Edwin F. Hale Sr., took pay cuts of as much as 10 percent last year as the financial company suffered significant losses from bad loans. Hale, who started 1st Mariner in 1995, earned a base salary of $522,000 last year, compared with $580,000 the year before, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company's chief operating officer and the executive vice president and chief financial officer also reported 10 percent pay reductions, while another executive vice president took a 3 percent pay cut. The pay reductions come as the company's banking arm, 1st Mariner Bank, has continued to suffer from soured real estate loans and is operating under an informal supervisory agreement with federal regulators.

A private-public task force recommended Wednesday that city officials stop a planned auction of the beleaguered Senator Theatre and buy the 70-year-old North Baltimore landmark. The panel, made up of city and state officials, as well as representatives from the private sector, recommended that the city foreclose on the property, pay off the $1.6 million owed to 1st Mariner Bank and the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, then find someone willing to operate the theater, preferably as a first-run movie house.

Senator Theatre owner Tom Kiefaber is "months" behind in loan payments to 1st Mariner Bank, the bank's chairman and chief executive confirmed yesterday. And with federal regulators pressuring the bank to get its own fiscal house in order, officials there had little choice but to call the loan and schedule a foreclosure auction. "The guy's in arrears big-time," Ed Hale said. "He hasn't paid for months." With the likelihood of a mid-April foreclosure auction looming, potential bidders for the Senator, a North Baltimore landmark since 1939, have started to surface.

1st Mariner parent's loss in 4Q widens to $9 million Baltimore-based First Mariner Bancorp, parent company of 1st Mariner Bank, reported yesterday a fourth-quarter loss of $9.06 million, or $1.40 per share, as it continued to be hammered by the weak mortgage industry. The year before, the company had a fourth-quarter loss of $2.7 million, or 43 cents per share. The bank had $8.5 million in bad-loan write-downs, foreclosure costs and loan charge-offs in the quarter. The company said in a regulatory filing this month that 1st Mariner Bank posted a fourth-quarter loss of $14.9 million as it continued to struggle with soured real estate loans but was able to maintain its capital levels with infusions from its holding company.

First Mariner Bancorp, which has been rapidly losing money because of bad mortgage loans and the economic downturn, is deferring millions of dollars in interest payments on some of its unsecured debt in an effort to preserve needed capital. The Baltimore company, which owns 1st Mariner Bank, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late on Christmas Eve that it is deferring interest payments on $73.7 million in debt issued by seven trust subsidiaries. First Mariner has paid $4.6 million in interest on the debt this year.

Edwin F. Hale Sr. stood before a few dozen shareholders and board members of his First Mariner Bank at its annual meeting last week, biting his lip. The brash former ironworker, who has enjoyed tweaking the city's elite in his rise from blue collar to boardroom, usually delights in the spotlight. But not on this occasion. "We've taken our lumps," Hale acknowledged. "Hopefully, this will be the end of it." It was a humbling moment for Hale. First Mariner, the base of his empire, is struggling after a series of bad loans, even as Hale looks to expand his proposed Canton real estate development into a city unto its own and to build a new arena for his Baltimore Blast pro soccer team.

Almost 1 1/2 years after his indictment on federal influence-peddling charges, former state Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell Sr. continues to serve on the board of directors of First Mariner Bancorp. Edwin F. Hale Sr., the company's chief executive officer and chairman of the board, declined to answer a reporter's questions about Bromwell. But a Hale aide confirmed that the Baltimore County Democrat sits on the bank's 16-member board of directors. His term expires April 24. The aide added that Bromwell would not stand for re-election when shareholders meet in May. In court papers unsealed this week, Bromwell in 2001 boasted about his connections to Hale.

FOR A COUPLE HUNdred folks, Artscape began with a trip to the top of the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall garage -- for the opening night VIP party. There, they got a bird's-eye view of the festivities as they sipped on cool drinks and caught up with friends. "I like this party," said Maryland Film Festival founder Jed Dietz. "Because it's hot and feels like summer and Artscape. Just the way it should be," said his wife, Dr. Julia McMillan, a Johns Hopkins University pediatrics professor. Soon-to-be restaurant owner Kevin Brown had his own way of beating that heat.