Ravens linebacker Lewis invests in new Hunt Valley project

In the latest foray by a professional football player into the world of commercial real estate, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis is partnering with a team of local investors on a new project in Hunt Valley that would include a sports bar, a memorabilia shop and a 38-lane bowling alley.

MVP Entertainment, a 63,000-square-foot leisure complex, is set to open in early 2010 in Hunt Valley Towne Centre, according to a news release issued Tuesday by representatives of Greenberg Gibbons, the mall’s Owings Mills-based owner.

The complex, which will be operated entirely by MVP without outside tenants or brand-name operators, also will include an “upscale dining and express restaurant,” two “high-tech golf simulators,” and a coffee bar serving gelato.

A spokeswoman for MVP said the company is withholding financial information about the project, including its total cost.

The complex will occupy part of the space vacated by a Wal-Mart store that closed in 2008, after the national big-box retailer opened a large retail outlet in nearby Cockeysville.

Lewis is just the latest in a series of current and former Ravens who have invested in real estate projects. Former defensive end Michael McCrary has invested in two former city-owned landfills, one of which is to be redeveloped as Monument Street Marketplace, as well as East Baltimore’s decrepit Oldtown Mall.

McCrary was not as lucky with another of his investments, a New Orleans condominium project, which was ruined by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, an event that precipitated an insurance fraud lawsuit in which McCrary was awarded $33.6 million dollars in 2008. That amount is currently being re-evaluated by the city’s circuit court.

Orlando Brown, a former offensive tackle with the Ravens, opened the state’s first Fatburger fast-food restaurant in Columbia in January. The franchise is a popular investment with celebrities and professional athletes.

Ray Lewis had been working with Rockville-based firm Cormony Development LLC on a project called Gateway South, which was planned to include a sports complex, retail space and the headquarters of Lewis’s charitable foundation on a site south of M&T Bank Stadium.

That project was scuttled last month, when city officials reached a three-way deal to build a slots casino on the site instead.

The MVP deal is a partnership between Lewis and Laura and Marc Rosen, a husband-and-wife investment team that is the minority partner in the deal. Lewis is the majority equity partner on the project, which is set to break ground this month.

Marc Rosen is a Baltimore trial lawyer and chairman of the board of Owings Mills-based K Bank, who met the linebacker while he was doing promotional work for K Bank six years ago, and later ended up doing legal work for the Ray Lewis Foundation.

“Ray and I have been working for several years on many topics, one of which is setting up what will eventually be his second career,” Rosen said. “There are any number of businesses that he is in and will be involved in, but we’re simply brainstorming this.”

Each year, the foundation hosts an event known as Ray Lewis’ Summer Days, part of which involves pairing donors with celebrities to go bowling together. The MVP Entertainment bowling alley will be the future site of this event.

Rosen said that Lewis usually bowls a score of between 200 and 220.

“Bowling is a hobby of his, and it’s not like he’s a professional, but he’s really, really good,” he said.