Credit crunch hits us$ 3 billion casino project

Developer and owner Ian Bruce Eichner said his company, 3700 Associates, was working with Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch to find new investors. The construction loan from Deutsche Bank of us$ 760 million went into default Wednesday, the company said.

Eichner said his company has had "multiple conversations with several groups of interested investors, which continue to be ongoing." A Deutsche Bank spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The 2,998-room high-rise casino and hotel is under construction and due to open in late 2009 between the Bellagio casino resort and the CityCenter casino complex on the Las Vegas Strip. Most of the units were condo-hotel rooms, which allow buyers to rent out the residences to hotel guests and split a fee with the resort management.

That led some observers to speculate that the project may have suffered from the weakening condominium market. But the company said demand for the units was strong, with 84 percent of the 2,184 units sold, and added it was not the cause of the financing problem.

Some 20,000 planned condo units in the Las Vegas area have been canceled or suspended in the last four years, according to research firm Applied Analysis. Sales of condo units and townhouses plummeted in December, down 55 percent from a year earlier to 167 units, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

"The state of the luxury condominium market is somewhat challenging," said Applied Analysis principal Brian Gordon. "The question remains: Is this a project-specific issue or is it a market issue?"

MGM Mirage said Tuesday that condo sales at its CityCenter project on the Strip were strong. It said it sold half of its 2,647 condominium units for us$ 1.63 billion, with two years remaining before its planned opening in late 2009.

CityCenter executive vice president Tony Dennis said Cosmopolitan developers were likely hampered by a tightening of credit markets following the subprime mortgage meltdown.

The Cosmopolitan, which broke ground in October 2005, was still constructing the public areas of its property. CityCenter, which began construction in June 2006, is up to the 38th floor. "We’re self-financing. We were not leaving ourselves exposed to the market," said Dennis. "Big difference."

Panorama Towers, a luxury offering just west of the Strip is also selling well, said developer Laurence Hallier. The third Panorama tower is to open in September and us$ 900 million in units have been sold so far. "It’s not the market that it was a year and a half ago, but I think for really good product in the best location, I believe there’s ample market," Hallier said.