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Business & Developmentby Ed Gunts7:28 amOct 14, 20150

Sports Legends Museum owed $300,000 in back rent, other charges

State had invested nearly $2 million in grants and other support for attraction, which closed abruptly Monday

Above: Camden Station, until recently the home of the Sports Legends Museum.

The Sports Legends Museum, which closed abruptly on Monday at Camden Station, owes the State of Maryland more than $300,000 in back rent and other charges, according to the Maryland Stadium Authority.

As of this week, the total figure is $306,745.07, according to stadium authority Chief Financial Officer David Raith. That includes past due rent, late charges, unpaid utility fees, parking fees and charges related to a sublease to a gift shop, Raith said.

The museum had not paid any rent in more than a year when it closed, according to Michael Frenz, the stadium authority’s executive director. The last month for which it paid rent was August of 2014, Frenz said.

Over the years, the state has invested another $1.974 million in grants and other allocations to help the museum open and remain in operation, according to the stadium authority.

The $1.974 million includes: $250,000 in 2005 for “tenant improvements”; $444,000 in the form of “forgiven rent” up to 2007; $300,000 in 2008 to help pay for operating expenses; $480,000 in 2014 to design renovations; and $500,000 in 2015 to carry out renovations, according to the stadium authority. These funds were grants to the museum and repayment was not expected, Frenz said.

The stadium authority provided its accounting of the museum’s obligations to the state one day after Sports Legends closed its doors, ending 10 years as part of Baltimore’s Camden Yards sports complex. Representatives of the museum said they were unsuccessful in efforts to negotiate a new lease at Camden Station and will now seek a new location.

Historic Train Terminal

The Sports Legends Museum is affiliated with the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum at 216 Emory Street. It occupied 22,551 square feet on the first and basement levels of the historic train terminal, featuring a mix of artifacts and interactive exhibits. According to state officials, the museum’s lease expired last April and it had been operating on a month-to-month agreement since then.

The train terminal opened in 1856 and was preserved and restored by the state as part of the Camden Yards sports complex. It served passengers using the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to travel to New York, Washington, Chicago and St. Louis for more than a century. For a period of time, it was Baltimore’s tallest building.

Sports Legends was one of two attractions in the converted train station, along with Geppi’s Entertainment Museum. State officials said last month that Geppi’s lease is due to expire at the end of August 2016 and Geppi’s missed a September 1 deadline to request a lease extension.

As a result, the entire train station at 301 West Camden Street is available for lease for the first time since Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992. The stadium authority has issued a request for expressions of interest from organizations that would like to lease some or all of the space in the train station. Expressions of interest are due by the end of October.

“We Were Patient With Them”

Frenz said the museum’s debts likely will be turned over to the state’s Central Collections Unit, a division that collects money owed to the state. Now that it has closed, he said, the museum has been given until Nov. 10 to vacate the premises.

Frenz said the stadium authority tried to work with the museum to negotiate a new lease and collect the rent, but directors reached the point where they concluded the state needs to look at other options. In the end, he said, the stadium authority asked the Sports Legends Museum to leave at the end of the baseball season.

“We worked with them for a long time,” Frenz said. “We were patient with them. We were waiting to see if they could come up with a proposal that was acceptable to our board.”

Ultimately, he said, “we decided we need to find a tenant who could pay as close to market rate as possible for the Camden Station property. We just didn’t think it’s good for us to have a tenant paying below market rent for an extended period of time.”

Selling Artifacts “not on the table”

Mike Gibbons, executive director of the Babe Ruth Birthplace Foundation, which operates Sports Legends and the Emory Street museum, did not dispute the stadium authority figures for back rent and other charges at Camden Station. But he declined to discuss the subject in detail.

“It’s something that we’re working on,” he said. “It’s something we are working with the stadium authority on.”

Gibbons added that breaking up the museum’s collection and selling sports artifacts to satisfy the museum’s debts is not an option. “It’s not on the table,” he said.

Gibbons said the closing at Camden Station caused three museum staffers to lose their jobs. He said the museum’s affiliate, the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum at 216 Emory Street, will continue to be open year round, and some items from the Sports Legends collection will be displayed there.

Gibbons said he hopes to have a decision soon on a new location for Sports Legends. Since the museum closed at Camden Station, he said, a number of people have suggested possible locations in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. In the meantime, he said, the contents of the Sports Legends Museum will be stored in several secure locations.

“We’re turning the page to a new chapter,” he said. “Our board and our staff are energized about that. It’s going to be a challenge, but we can get it done.”

Weeks of Negotiations

Gibbons said the decision to close the museum at Camden Station came after several weeks of negotiations with the stadium authority.

He said the Board of Directors of the Babe Ruth Birthplace Foundation unanimously voted not to accept a counter offer from the stadium authority to renew its Sports Legends Museum lease at Camden Station.

That vote led to Monday’s closure of the museum and the announcement that the board would search for a new location.

The Foundation’s Board of Directors had proposed a new lease whereby the stadium authority would return to the rent level approved by the stadium authority and the state Board of Public Works in 2008, a partial payment of back rent, and a five-year lease agreement. The stadium authority countered with a higher rent payment and a lease term of one year.

Gibbons said, “Our board felt that both the financial terms MSA was requiring and the one-year lease would put Sports Legends Museum in an unviable financial position and would eliminate our ability to effectively implement a new business plan.”

Gibbons added that “while this is a sad chapter in our history, the board also voted unanimously to immediately embark on efforts to secure a new location for Sports Legends while we safely relocate and store the nation’s largest collection of state sports memorabilia in America.”

“We Chose Fresh Beginning”

Foundation Board chairman John Moag said, “With the curtailing of the museum’s presence at Camden Yards comes exciting new opportunities.

“We thank our partners, the Orioles, the Ravens, Baltimore Colts’ alumni, the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame, many area universities including the University of Maryland, M&T Bank and our many loyal fans and members for their understanding and continued support in helping us ensure that Maryland’s sports heritage will remain readily accessible to the public. We also thank the City of Baltimore, the State of Maryland and many others for their strong assistance with museum projects and initiatives over the years.”

“Sports Legends Museum, as one of the only not-for-profit cultural attractions in the state paying rent, has been financially challenged by an original business model that was too dependent on admissions and store revenues,” Gibbons said.

The slowdown in attendance that impacted many Baltimore attractions this summer contributed to the museum’s lagging revenues, he added.

Chairman John Moag noted that “our Board balanced the cost of remaining in Camden Station for one year against investing in a fresh beginning. We chose the latter. Our Board has stepped to the plate and remains as committed today as ever.

“We are motivated not only by our fiduciary responsibility to the institution, but by our common belief that by telling the story of local sports we are celebrating perhaps the one segment of our culture that brings all of our ethnic, racial, economic and educational differences to common ground. We believe that is worth embracing, preserving and teaching.”

The foundation’s other attraction, the Babe Ruth Birthplace, which just underwent a complete renovation, will continue to welcome visitors year round. Gibbons said that he plans on exhibiting key artifacts of the Sports Legends collection at the Birthplace while a new location is being developed. Sports Legends Museum anticipates a two-year transition into a new venue, he said.

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