A Baltimore judge denied a last-minute attempt to block the sale of Harborview Marina, sending the waterfront gem off Key Highway to public auction at 2 p.m. today.

Attorneys for Harborview’s minority owner, Richard Swirnow, tried to intervene in the foreclosure case on Friday, asking a judge to grant a temporary restraining order to stop the sale.

With an order Tuesday night, Baltimore Circuit Judge Martin Schreiber II denied Swirnow’s attempt to intervene, ruling that the minority member of the ownership group does not have standing to stop the foreclosure sale.

Swirnow is accusing his business partner, Dr. Selvin Passen, of intentionally pushing the marina into foreclosure as part of a plan to seize complete control .

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The two wealthy businessmen have been fighting over the marina for almost a decade. Swirnow famously developed Harborview on the South Baltimore waterfront. His entity owns 40% of the marina. An entity for Passen, the doctor turned developer and marina owner, controls 60%.

The judge’s order clears the way for the public auction to proceed at 2 p.m. on-site at 500 Harborview Drive. Attorneys for Swirnow and Passen declined to comment on the judge’s ruling.

Harborview managers abruptly evicted all of the boaters and closed the 278-slip marina this spring, blaming unsafe conditions of the concrete pier. The emergency closure was met with skepticism and frustration around the docks.

Harborview was one of the few marinas in the Baltimore area that catered to liveaboards; some couples had resided on their boats there for more than a decade. Neighbors were upset, too. Families often walked along the pier or dined there, and the marina was once home to the kitschy, floating bar known as the Tiki Barge.

Swirnow’s side has argued in court filings that the emergency closure was a pretense for a power grab by Passen. Since 2015, at least, the two men have been fighting over whether to sell Harborview or to buy each other out.

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Old emails filed in court documents Friday by Swirnow show that the partners’ dealings had not always been fraught with accusations of fraud, bullying and bad-faith negotiations.

“We have been going back and forth for a long time,” Swirnow wrote Passen in February 2019. “I do think that us coming to resolution is long overdue. And, I also think we need to get all the marina issues resolved for the sake of our children and grandchildren. Long gone are the days when my children babysat for your children, but the memories are still good.”

Passen has not returned multiple messages. His attorneys have declined to comment.

Attorneys for Swirnow have called out the sequence of financial maneuvers by Passen that preceded the evictions. In August, the doctor registered a new company in Florida to buy the mortgages on the Baltimore marina. Then his marina missed the monthly payments on these mortgages.

Next, the doctor filed papers to foreclose on himself, saying in court records that his marina owes his new company almost $2.9 million.

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Two weeks ago, Swirnow sued him and accused him of intentionally making the business go bust as part of a plan to squeeze out the minority partner.

He alleges the endgame is for Passen to buy back the marina at auction for below-market value.

This story will be updated.