A few weeks after the Harbormaster’s Office chased it out of Annapolis waters last month, the floating hotel room Flohom 1 Bay Escape has docked at a marina in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
The start of a planned network of houseboats across the East Coast, Flohom 1 is listed as open for rentals on the company website at the marina near Rash Field. It was unclear, however, if it was actively booking. No dates were available in a search Tuesday morning.
Brian Myers, one of three partners behind the concept, wrote in a text message that the company is working to establish the first of two houseboats. He declined to comment further on the company’s plans.
The new slip at the Baltimore Inner Harbor Marina offers expansive views of the downtown cityscape, so much so that Myers has docked the boat with its glass “back porch” doors facing the opposite direction from the way it was tied up in Annapolis. In a marina full of large white sailboats and power cruisers, its tan sides and large topside deck stand out.
Flohom quietly left Butler’s Marina in Annapolis after a June opening that ran afoul of a 1984 city law banning “house barges” and complaints from a handful of boaters in a neighboring marina.
The city’s Harbormaster’s Office issued citations to Meyer and one of his partners, marina owner Marcellous Butler, for docking an unauthorized vessel. After initially saying they would fight the citations, the partners quietly pulled the 53-foot boat from its slip on Back Creek and moved it onto dry land at a nearby boatyard.
The company is an ambitious venture co-founded by Meyer, Butler and former valet parking entrepreneur Jerry South. They say they have raised $1.6 million toward a $2.5 million investment goal, with plans to operate 60 houseboats for rent as a sort of network of hotels in marinas along the East Coast.
The company has announced plans for a location in Arnold. The partners also said they have signed a lease for manufacturing space at Baltimore Peninsula, and plan to manufacture the boats needed for expansion and retail sales there.
Alan Hyatt, an attorney for Flohom, said recently that barring an initiative to change the law in Annapolis, the company had no recourse but to leave the city.
In response to a request under Maryland’s public records law, the city released the three complaints emailed to the harbormaster, the office in charge of writing and enforcing rules on Annapolis’ creeks.
“I expressed my concern about the extent to which the vessel projected into the waterway, but the two people were not receptive at all, and were in fact quite rude almost to the point of being threatening,” one boater wrote. “When I explained my concerns about the threat to navigation the vessel represents, I was told I should learn how to maneuver my boat better.”
A city spokesperson, who earlier put the number of complaints at about 10, said the remainder came by phone.
A spokesperson for the Baltimore City Department of House & Community Development said there are no city regulations that would prevent Flohome from operating as a short-term rental property.
A list of rules at the Baltimore Inner Harbor Marina also doesn’t bar houseboats, but it does prohibit commercial activity.
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