Of course you discern the irony. Ed Hale's 1st Mariner Bank contributed in its own small way to the housing meltdown by lending millions of dollars to homeowners who subsequently defaulted on their mortgages. 1st Mariner had to foreclose on dozens of homes, mostly in Virginia but some in other states. The bad loans have brought the bank close to insolvency and seizure by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., although it looks like it has until next summer to raise new capital.

Bad housing loans prompted the Maryland General Assembly to pass a law slowing down foreclosures. Lenders were swooping in within a few weeks of people missing payments, and the legislature wanted to make sure the process wasn't too greased. Now Hale is claiming homeowner status himself to try to forestall foreclosure on 1st Mariner Tower, the Canton landmark owned by his real estate company and containing 1st Mariner's headquarters. It seems like a stretch. Most of the 17-story building's floors are offices.

But at the tiptop is what is probably Baltimore's most fabulous bachelor hideaway, with stunning views of the harbor to the west and Baltimore to the north. Descriptions of it seem to be scarce. But Hale's old penthouse, nearby in Anchorage Towers, contained "custom woodwork, the furniture, rugs and accessories from all corners of the globe," the Sun reported. It also had "pastoral paintings in thick, gilded frames that cover nearly every available inch of wall space" set in a "relentlessly masculine palette, the cognac leathers and dusky walls that evoke an Englishman's library." Hale was trying to sell that place for $2 million before he took it off the market. The pad in 1st Mariner tower is supposed to be an upgrade from that.

Hale argues in court that, because 1st Mariner Tower is his home, it qualifies for the extended foreclosure process required by Maryland law. He wants the court to at least delay an auction scheduled for Wednesday. So does Natixis bank's decision to seize Hale's tower indicate a new phase of the recession, a commercial real-estate deterioration similar to the one in the early 1990s? Or did Nataxis make the biggest, dumbest subprime homeowner loan ever? A judge will decide.