Wayne Frazier Sr. knows Ronald Lipscomb’s reputation, calling a bribery charge against the prominent Baltimore developer “extremely shocking.”
“My business and personal impression is that he is a very generous and giving man,” Frazier, president of the Baltimore-based Maryland Washington Minority Contractors Association, said Thursday.
“I’ve never experienced any type of pressure from him in reference to going after work or influencing officials,” Frazier said.
Lipscomb, founder and president of Doracon Contracting Inc., has been involved in some of Baltimore’s biggest and brightest new developments.
Lipscomb had a hand in the development of the $300 million Hilton Baltimore Convention Center Hotel and shining residential projects Silo Point, in Locust Point, and Railway Express, near Penn Station, among others.
Doracon has also played a role in the ongoing development of the new Four Seasons hotel and Legg Mason Tower under construction in Harbor East.
As the two towers climb into the sky, though, Lipscomb finds himself facing a one-count bribery indictment related to tax breaks for the waterfront buildings’ development.
Prosecutors say City Councilwoman Helen Holton voted to approve millions of dollars of tax breaks for projects involving Lipscomb at Harbor East, after Lipscomb’s company reportedly paid $12,500 for a political survey for Holton in 2007. If convicted, Lipscomb would face two to 12 years in prison.
Gerard Martin, Lipscomb’s attorney, has said his client would be exonerated and said Lipscomb welcomes the opportunity to clear his name.
Anthony Ambridge, a former city councilman who has known Lipscomb for about 30 years and worked with him since about 2001, said Lipscomb likes to see minority business owners involved in the city’s biggest projects.
“He’s a big proponent of increasing minority business participation,” Ambridge said.
Lipscomb, 52, was raised in Durham, N.C., and got his break at a young age, when he received a prep school scholarship to the prestigious Woodberry Forest School in Virginia, Ambridge said. He moved to Baltimore in 1979 to begin his own business career, launching Doracon 18 years ago.
As Doracon grew more successful, Lipscomb developed a reputation for helping smaller companies by hiring large numbers of minority subcontractors on Doracon projects, Frazier said.
