Riverfront development group sued over mortgage on riverboat

A quasi-public corporation tasked with revitalizing the riverfront district in Delaware’s largest city is being sued for allegedly defaulting on the mortgage for a replica paddlewheel boat.

Philadelphia-based Spirit of Pennsylvania Dinner Charters Inc. claims in a complaint filed Thursday that Wilmington-based Riverfront Development Corp. contracted in 2016 to buy the Riverboat Queen for $250,000 and defaulted in December on a $200,000 mortgage. The Pennsylvania firm says it is owed an outstanding balance of more than $133,000.

The boat is used for dinner cruises on Thursday and Sunday, as well as a Sunday brunch cruise. This year’s cruise season began last weekend, according to RDC’s website.

Megan McGlinchey, executive director of the Riverfront Development Corp., declined to comment on the lawsuit Friday, saying RDC had not yet been served with the complaint. McGlinchey’s signature appears on a mortgage document filed as an exhibit with the complaint.

The RDC, formerly led by Wilmington’s current mayor, Michael Purzycki, has benefited from more than $300 million in public funding.

The RDC was allocated $2.88 million in taxpayer funding from the General Assembly in each of the past two years. Democratic Gov. John Carney is proposing the same amount of funding for the upcoming fiscal year.

According to an economic analysis released in February by the University of Delaware, the state has spent about $370 million in developing the Wilmington riverfront since 1996. The city of Wilmington has contributed $27 million, with an additional $17 million from other public sources, including county and federal funding.

According to IRS tax filings, the corporation has had annual operating losses ranging from about $5.8 million to $7.8 million since 2013.