More bad news out of the Lake Las Vegas development. We've been watching the resort area slowly implode since last June and now USA Today's Hotel Check-In says that the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas will shut down at the start of May putting around 400 people out of work. The 348-room resort is owned by Village Hospitality, an arm of Deutsche Bank which has decided to case funding the hotel.

It's the latest blow to an area that has been hard hit in the recession. The resort destination, 17 miles away from the Las Vegas strip, features a manmade lake surrounded by an Italian-style village. It started off with grand fanfare as a quiet luxury alternative to the high-powered glitz of the Las Vegas strip. Real estate boomed and several different hotels settled in. But in the developer, Transcontinental Corp., lost the property in foreclosure after defaulting on $540 million in loans and the new owners of Lake Las Vegas filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008. The Reflection Bay Golf Course at Lake Las Vegas closed last August leaving just one course, the private SouthShore course in Henderson, available for play. The Lake Las Vegas real estate market remains clogged with multimillion homes. The resort area faces many challenges including a still-slumping Las Vegas tourism market, a second home market that refuses to rebound and a water bill that runs into the millions jacking up the homeowners association fees.

News of real estate rebounding in North Lake Tahoe. Martis Camp, a private, gated community that stretched over 2,177 pristine acres in North Lake Tahoe that has a maximum of 653 homesites. Home sites range from $450,000 to $2 million. Before the real estate crash from September through December of 2007, Martis Camp sold 11 lots. From September through December of 2008, they only sold four lots. But from September through December 2009 the community sold 24 lots indicating a renewed interest in luxury getaway homes. Most of the buyers are cash buyers.

The community includes a 18-hole Tom Fazio golf course and offers direct ski access from Martis Camp to Northstar via the Martis Camp Express Lift. Martis Camp also includes a Family Barn complex that has a summer swimming venue, bowling alley, movie theater, indoor basketball court, soda fountain and outdoor concert park. The Family Barn also includes the art loft which is a space for Club members to attend art classes and create sketches, paintings and sculptures. The community also includes the Lost Library, a cottage situated in the wooded sanctuaries of Martis Camp, that has books, a fireplace and cozy chairs for reading. Buyers can use any builder they like for construction as long as the homes stays within relatively flexible established design guidelines in order to preserve the charm of the area.

Another day, another Peachtree foreclosure. This is the second time this week we've heard about a foreclosure on a building project on the Atlanta street. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that a South Carolina's First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. has foreclosed on a the site which was planned to have a 50-tower with a Mandarin Oriental hotel, luxury condos, a spa and other amenities. The site was auctioned off in a foreclosure auction on February 2 on the Fulton County Courthouse steps. The developers of the hotel, Tivoli Properties, have said they will challenge the foreclosure.

The one-acre parcel had been owned by TP 1138 Peachtree LLC, a subsidiary of the proposed hotel's developer, Tivoli Properties Inc. The site was bought in 2007 for $11.5 million. A year later the $285 million hotel and condo project was announced with plans for 71 condos with prices ranging from $1.8 million to $15 million. The condo was set to begin construction in 2009 and finish in late 2011. It was predicted that the project would need to be about half-sold in order to begin building. The first 30 buyers to reserve condominiums were promised $75 a square foot discounts which worked out to six figure discounts because the average condo size is over 2,500 square feet. The loan to acquire the site was issued by Georgian Bank, which failed last September, and was acquired by First Citizens Bank. A loan of $13.5 million was due last November. Although it is a coup for Atlanta to land a Mandarin Oriental, the last thing Atlanta needed was more unsold luxury condos. Even if the market picks up there is still a glut of unsold condos to be sold before unbuilt projects get their chance at being snapped up.

More resort woes in the Caribbean. The Wall Street Journal reports that Credit Suisse, which represents investors in the Temenos resort on Anguilla, has taken over the project and appointed a receiver to manage it. The resort, which was supposed to have a 32-room hotel and 78 villas offered for sale in the millions, carried a $180 million mortgage. The luxury development was the brainchild of entertainment mogul Robert F.X. Sillerman, who began planning the resort in 2002 and put $180 million of his own money into the project in addition to the monster mortgage. Construction was stopped in 2008 and it is said that the project will need another $125 million for completion. The receiver will be charged with finding a deep-pocketed savior for the project to either finish the resort or take over completely.

Sillerman has had a long career in the entertainment world. In the late 1970s he and a partner created a company that bought up radio and television stations. He used cash from that first venture to build SFX Entertainment into a huge promoter of live entertainment. That company was later sold to Clear Channel for $4.4 billion in 2000. His latest company is CKX, Inc., which we recently wrote about in December. The company bought controlling interest of Elvis Presley Enterprises in 2004 including Graceland and has been working on a major redevelopment project for the 100 acres surrounding the Tennessee home. CKX is also the parent company for Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment which owns the "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance?" franchises.

Like the Four Seasons Barbados project I mentioned last month, this one also had its share of celebrity investors and other well-heeled buyers, some of who paid deposits of up to 40 percent on idyllic vacation homes. Buyers include bestselling author Dan Brown and television producer Simon Fuller.

Last month I mentioned that Atlanta's one of Atlanta's priciest condo projects, Mansion on Peachtree, was in deep financial trouble. The project was reportedly carrying a total debt of $187.4 million, a number above the original $165 million projected for the building. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that the project was sold in a foreclosure auction this week for $66.1 million to an affiliate of the lead lender, iStar Financial.

The 42-story hotel/condo project is home to luxury condos and a five-star hotel operated by Rosewood Hotels & Resorts. The building also includes NEO, a contemporary Italian restaurant, the fourth location of Craft from restaurateur Tom Colicchio. Craft Atlanta and the 29 Spa. The project was announced to great fanfare back in 2006 but by the time it opened in 2008 the Atlanta real estate market was already mid-slump. Some people who wanted to get into the project couldn't sell the homes they already owned and the high prices of the condos dwarfed the prices of some homes in the area. Last June a penthouse in the mansion sold for $4 million but it was originally listed at $10.2 million. The hotel and related businesses remain open.

More signs of condo fallout in Austin, Texas. A bunch of units from the Sabine on Fifth project will hit the auction block on February 28. The project, which is located in a 10-story former office building, escaped foreclosure after the owner CWS Capital Partners was given a loan extension. Auctioneer Kennedy Wilson will sell off 27 of the available 44 units (the building has 80 units total) with bids on one-bedroom units starting as low as $85,000 and two-bedroom starting at $195,000. The apartments were once listed near $204,900 and $550,000. Condo buyers will receive a one-year Tower Health Club and Spa membership and up to $1,500 in closing costs paid by the seller.

A press release brings a quick update on The Floridian, a condo building near Howard University in Washington D.C. Last we heard in December, the 118-unit building was facing foreclosure. Now UrbanLand Company has announced it will begin selling the remaining 86 condos at The Floridian in the next 30 to 60 days. The building was recently acquired by an affiliate of The Goldstar Group, a Bethesda-based private real estate investment and management company.

The new pricing has studios starting at $227,000 and prices top out at a three-bedroom penthouse for $1 million. Originally prices for the loft style condos started in the low $300,000s. The Floridian is two eight-story towers, made of stainless steel, colored glass and limestone with10-foot exposed concrete ceilings, exposed ductwork, floor-to-ceiling windows, granite countertops, maple and bamboo floors, designer lighting and balconies in select units. The community also has underground parking and a shared rooftop terrace with sweeping views of the Capitol, the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral. The development is FHA approved, "so down payments as low as 3.5 percent are possible."

Care for a beachfront condo? Have we got a deal for you. Accelerated Marketing Partners has announced their latest auction-- 21 condominiums at Coconut Grove Residences in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The auction will be held on February 28 with minimum bids for the homes ranging from $260,000 to $1.7 million, prices the company says are 57 percent below the last asking prices, although still pretty high for the area currently.

The Coconut Grove Residences project is a boutique residential condominium developed by CGD, LLC of Fort Lauderdale. The 14-story tower has 63 condos with a variety of floor plans. Residences have travertine flooring, granite countertops and laundry rooms in each unit. Development amenities include a 90-foot heated swimming pool, 11 beachfront cabanas, on-site Cybex fitness center and media room, key-operated elevators, and resident discounts to spa and other services at the neighboring Marriott Harbor Beach.

The 21 condos available at the February 28 auction include one-bedroom units, two-bedroom units, three-bedroom units and the highest priced property, a three-bedroom-plus-media-room condominium which is 5,195 square feet and has a minimum bid of $1.7 million, 49 percent below the last asking price. Advance registration for the auction is required. The project is Fannie Mae approved and conventional financing is available as well.

On Wednesday, disbarred Florida attorney, Scott Rothstein, appeared in the federal courthouse in Miami and pleaded guilty to running a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme from 2005 to 2009.

Rothstein was was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) statute; one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering; one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud; and two counts of wire fraud. Rothstein is scheduled for sentencing on May 6, 2010. He faces a total maximum statutory term of imprisonment of 100 years.

As part of the plea agreement, Rothstein agreed to forfeit $1.2 billion, including 24 pieces of real property, numerous luxury cars, boats, and other vessels, jewelry, sports memorabilia, business interests, bank accounts, among other financial interests.

Rothstein admitted to running a Ponzi scheme from 2005 through November 2009. Rothstein engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity through his law firm, Rothstein, Rosenfeldt, and Adler, P.A., located in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Specifically, RRA was the criminal enterprise through which Rothstein and possibly others fraudulently obtained approximately $1.2 billion from investors through bogus investment and other schemes.

Rothstein used the law firm to fraudulently induce investors to loan money to non-existent borrowers based upon promissory notes and requests for short-term bridge loans for business financing; and invest funds based upon anticipated pay-outs from purported confidential civil settlement agreements.

As part of the loan scheme, Rothstein solicited investors to loan money to purported RRA clients through promissory notes and short-term bridge loans. Rothstein falsely represented to the investors that the purported clients were willing to pay high rates of return on these loans. In the settlement agreement scheme, Rothstein and other co-conspirators solicited clients to invest in purported civil case settlement funds. Rothstein and his co-conspirators falsely told investors that these settlements ranged in amounts from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

Rothstein falsely represented to investors that these settlements could be purchased at a discount and would be repaid over time to the investors at full face value. In addition, investors were told that these funds would be held in the trust account of RRA. In both instances, the Information alleges that the purported investment vehicles never existed, but were part of an elaborate Ponzi scheme in which new investors' money was used to repay money owed to earlier investors.

Rothstein used the investors' funds to fund bank accounts, purchase luxury vehicles and numerous homes, and an equity investment in Gianni Versace's South Beach mansion, called Casa Casuarina.

"(This) guilty plea is an important step in bringing to justice those who perpetrated a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme under the guise of operating a legitimate law firm," says United States Attorney Jeffrey H. Sloman. "The United States Attorney's Office will continue to pursue all leads and evidence as they are uncovered. Rest assured, those who are criminally culpable will be held accountable. Victims can also take comfort in knowing that the United States will do everything it can to identify, seize and equitably refund fraud proceeds."

Added FBI Special Agent in Charge John V. Gillies, "Scott Rothstein used a classic approach to mislead investors---an ostentatious lifestyle, a charismatic personality, and guarantees of sky-high returns-all red flags in the world of Ponzi schemes. It is a lesson for all investors to learn that they need to look beyond the hype."

Next month's Winter Olympics have been anticipated for years in Whistler. But one resort is facing an unexpected snag, foreclosure. Whistler Blackcomb, which will be hosting part of next month's games may end up being auctioned off in the middle of the Olympics. The owner, private equity firm and hedge fund Fortress Investment Group, has failed to make payments on a $1.7 billion loan. The company bought resort operator Intrawest for $2.8 billion in 2006 back when everything was smooth sailing in the real estate world.

Flash forward to now and Fortress is trying to refinance the loan and lenders to Fortress have been publishing notices of foreclosure in places like the Wall Street Journal announcing a public auction of the assets of Intrawest which includes a bunch of winter resorts sprinkled across North America. The auction date of February 19 puts the sale of Whistler Blackcomb smack dab in the middle of the Olympics. Intrawest is said to be negotiating with the lenders but plans to continue with business as usual and the auction likely won't affect the running of the event. Intrawest properties also include the Whistler Sliding Centre, shown at right, which is the site of the Olympic bobsled and luge events.

The Globe and Mail reports that Intrawest ULC has sold its Panorama Mountain Village resort as part of its effort to stave off the auction. Panorama is located in eastern British Columbia and neither the buyer nor the price have been revealed. Intrawest already sold Copper Mountain in Colorado last November.

Last month I wrote about the stalled Four Seasons Barbados project now it seems the project is getting help from the government of the island nation. The Wall Street Journal reports that in order to keep the project going and save jobs, the government of Barbados has agreed to guarantee a $60 million loan from a Caribbean bank to restart construction. In return the government will get a 20 percent equity stake in the project. But like all bailouts, it's risky, should the developer go belly up the Barbadian taxpayers will be stuck with the bill. While $60 million may be a drop in the bucket compared to the U.S. bailouts of car makers and banks, it's a lot for the small island nation which has a population of just about 270,000 people.


The project has attracted celebrity buyers including Simon Cowell and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Construction of the project stopped a year ago and debts began to mount on the property. The project calls for 36 luxury villas and a Four Seasons hotel. All the villas also offer services of butlers and other staff from the Four Seasons hotel whenever the villa owners are in residence. The villas will be outfitted with the finest finishes and antiques sourced form around the world. About half of the villas have been sold at prices from $11 million to $18 million apiece. The Four Seasons website proclaims that Paradise Beach Limited will recommence construction on site before the end of first quarter of 2010 and that the overall development master plan and the original hotel layout will both be revised to provide optimum use of the land but keeping all of the original facilities. The developers are still charged with finding another 19 buyers ready to pay high prices for the villas in order to complete the project and at least for Barbados' sake we hope they find them.

Maybe they need to change the name of One Beacon Court to Once Beacon. The 105-condo Cesar Pelli designed building was hot, hot, hot a few years ago. But now most of the news about the building with the beautiful views and the high end amenities is about who is selling.

Last year disgraced lawyer Marc Drier's four-bedroom unit in the building sold at auction for $8.2 million.

Flavio Briatore's penthouse in the building remains on the market down to $23 million from the $25 million it was listed at when we checked it out as an estate of the day.



Baseball player Bobby Abreu has been trying to sell his One Beacon Court in New York City for a while, chopping the price from $7.9 million to $5.9 million.



Now Cityfile reports on a couple new listings in the building. Joe Roth, the Hollywood producer and former head of Twentieth Century Fox and Walt Disney Studios, has put his four-bedroom apartment up for sale for $21.7 million. He bought the 3,779-square-foot expanse for $13 million in 2006.

An apartment in the building that we first checked out in 2007, baseball player Johnny Damon's former place, is also now back on the market. Damon and his wife sold the apartment three years ago for $8 million and it is now back on the market for $8.9 million. A look at StreetEasy reveals that there are 14 apartments up for sale in the building with a price range of $4.4 million to $23 million.

It has sat at the end of the Las Vegas strip, big, blue and unfinished for a while but perhaps the Fontainebleau Las Vegas Resort will finally be completed now that casino-loving billionaire investor Carl Icahn has made the winning bid for the bankrupt resort. Tourism in Las Vegas has been sluggish recently and the Strip has a glut of new hotel rooms including those at the massive City Center project.

Reuters reports that court documents show that the only qualified bid received for the company was from Icahn Nevada Gaming Acquisition LLC. He had offered $156.5 million to buy the casino back in November, a bid which put Penn National Gaming Inc out of the running. Reuters interviewed Icahn who said his philosophy is to buy things when no one else wants them. It is a strategy that has served him well in the past. But Fountainebleau is a huge project, one that has already cost $2 billion and could cost another $1.5 billion to finish. It's got a nice Strip location but does Las Vegas need a 3,815-room resort right now? The Fontainebleau will also have a casino, spa, performing arts theater, condo-hotel units, retail space, conference space and nightclubs, lounges, restaurants and even a chocolate factory.

Icah was involved in a deal to buy the Tropicana's Atlantic City casino and we've been watching his machinations with Beal Bank to save the Trump Atlantic City casinos from ruin (and possibly from Trump himself). Icahn has played in Las Vegas before, buying low and selling high with the Stratosphere. In that case he bought the casino out of bankruptcy in 1998 and sold the property in 2007. If this proves anything it's that Icahn may be willing to wait a while to make a profit, a good thing because it will be a while before the Fontainebleau makes any money.