A waterfront condominium at Baltimore’s Ritz-Carlton Residences owned by the late author Tom Clancy is heading to the auction block Dec. 12 with no minimum bid required.
The upscale, four-bedroom, five-and-a-half bath unit spans 12,000 square feet — nearly an entire floor of the the Key Highway development punctuated by six balconies overlooking the water.
Clancy, who grew up in Baltimore and passed away after a brief illness in October 2013 at age 66, merged three penthouses to create the single unit at a cost of $15 million. It is assessed today at nearly $8 million.
The auction will be held by Cummings & Co. Realtors in partnership with Elite Auctions. Prospective buyers are required to fill out a registration form posted on baltimorepenthouse.com prior to the sale because of Covid-19 restrictions.
The property on Key Highway across from Federal Hill and the American Visionary Arts Museum first hit the market in 2015 at $12 million. The price has dropped over the years, and last March was reduced 25% to $5.9 million by the estate.
It is the latest development in the ongoing quest to settle the estate of the New York Times best-selling author who was also a minority owner of the Orioles. Clancy’s heirs in August sold his 535-acre Peregrine Cliff estate on the Chesapeake Bay in Southern Maryland for $4.9 million after it sat on the market for two years at a price of $6.2 million.
The Ritz-Carlton condo auction will be held in the unit at 11 a.m. and will open bidding without reserve, a brochure posted Monday by listing agent Angel Stevens of Cummings & Co. Realtors says. Private tours of the condo are available to prospective buyers before the auction.
A brochure for the auction touts the penthouse’s “intelligent design and functional beauty,” adding that it “embodies this rare, and illustrious fusion of luxury and efficiency.”
“Inspiring and exceptionally modern, the home demonstrates an appreciation of the finer things in life,” the brochure reads.
The condo has ultra-modern decor with 10-foot ceilings, a gourmet kitchen, gym, movie theater, huge master bedroom, two offices, a game room, gallery space and more. Most of the residence has sweeping vistas of the Inner Harbor.
Clancy grew up in Northeast Baltimore and attended Loyola Blakefield for high school and Loyola University Maryland where he majored in English literature. In the 1980s, he was an insurance agent who wrote novels in his spare time.
His most notable works include his 1984 debut novel “The Hunt for Red October” followed by “Clear and Present Danger,” “Patriot Games” and “The Sum of All Fears.” A total of 17 books hit the bestseller list and most centered on his character Jack Ryan. Several were made into action and spy thriller movies or video games.
He acquired the multiple units at the Ritz-Carlton in 2009 for a combined $12.6 million, setting a local real estate market record. Stevens said that the size of the condo has been a sticking point cited by prospective buyers. It could be divided by new owners to create two units.
Read Baltimore Business Journal’s full article HERE.
