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Winter Storm Hits Maryland, Part 3
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Ed Hale Shares Details About Financial Future
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CBS
In Baltimore, one of Maryland's best-known businessmen, Ed Hale, has experienced the recession's impact firsthand. Recently, he was forced to sell his high profile office tower and his 1st Mariner Bank has been hurt by the mortgage crisis.
In a rare in-depth interview, he tells Mary Bubala he's battling back.
Ed Hale burst onto the scene with the Baltimore Blast. The local boy from Highlandtown with blue-collar roots transformed himself into one of Baltimore's best known businessmen. He built a bank and then a massive tower with a penthouse on the 17th floor.
Hale seemed to have it all, then the recession hit and it started to unravel.
"Very, very embarrassed, I have a lot of pride. I do a lot of things that people count on me and people were questioning my viability and am I going to make it. I've got a board of directors. Some of them were shaken," said Hale.
In his first interview since news broke of his financial problems tied to the 1st Mariner Tower, Ed Hale is sharing details with WJZ that most don't know.
First, he almost went bankrupt.
"I had two choices. I could either go into Chapter 11 and really hurt many people--I have 1,000 people who work for me--or sell assets and that's what I chose to do, I sold the building that I created," he said.
The building he sits in is no longer his, but he is looking to the future.
"I have moved on. Really I am tougher than people know. I told my mother -- she still lives in the house that I grew up in-- I said, 'Get the attic bedroom ready, I may be coming down,'" said Hale. "We were joking about it, but because of my background, my upbringing, my parents, I felt comfortable, at peace over what I had to do and I've done it. You know, no one can ever take away the fact that I designed, I cleaned up this property and I did this," he said.
Ed Hale has always been ambitious. He built a big tower, but did he aim too high?
"I don't think so. I think that maybe I was ahead of my time, putting it over here in Canton, but I'm still going to build the shopping center over here," said Hale.
Hale still owns 31 acres next to the tower, and his ambitious plan to bring stores like Target and Lowe's to this side of town still stands.
His bank will also stay in the tower, but he's moving out, giving up the penthouse for a smaller place in the city.
"I am going to scale back like everybody is," said Hale.
Hale may be moving on, but the past several months were dark days filled with difficult decisions as he saw all that he built slipping out of his hands.
"It was very, very lonely because I had no one else that I could go to, to talk about this, because I am the only person who is acquainted with all the facts. It's been a very difficult, painful trip," said Hale.
But those who know Hale, know he's a survivor who can reinvent himself, while staying true to his hometown.
"I was a kitchen boy at a camp for rich kids in Vermont when I was 14. Then I worked at Bethlehem Steel. I worked at McDonald's. I don't forget where I come from, I don't," said Hale. "I have cleared the decks on the debt that I have from the hundreds of millions down to a low, very manageable number for me so I can live to fight another day," said Hale.
Will Ed Hale will rise again?
"Yes, I'm not dead yet," he said.
Ed Hale says he is now pouring his heart and soul into the success of 1st Mariner Bank, which is the last large bank still headquartered here in Baltimore.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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