LakeLasVegas

Lake Las Vegas Ritz-Carlton Set To Close

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Real Estate Developments

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.

Tags: lake las vegas, LakeLasVegas, nevada real estate, NevadaRealEstate, real estate development, real estate developments, RealEstateDevelopment, RealEstateDevelopments, ritz-carlton

Credit Suisse Sued Over Resort Failures

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

Should a lender be held accountable for a resort's failure? A class action suit may bring one answer. The Wall Street Journal reports on a suit filed by property owners at four resorts. The suit accuses Credit Suisse Group AG of predatory lending. The $24 billion suit was filed on behalf of over 3,000 homeowners and investors and includes Beau Blixseth, the son of former Yellowstone club owners Tim and Edra Blixseth. Yellowstone Club is one of the properties named in the suit, the others are Ginn Sur Mer in the Bahamas, the Lake Las Vegas resort in Nevada and the Tamarack Resort in Idaho. So far all of these properties except for Ginn Sur Mer have wrestled with bankruptcy. The plaintiffs have lost more than $8 billion in their investments.

Court papers accuse Credit Suisse and related corporations of wire and mail fraud, racketeering, money laundering and conspiracy all in the name of coercing developers to take out huge loans. The suit also takes on real-estate adviser Cushman & Wakefield Inc., saying that the firm aided the bank by creating property appraisals that inflated the value of the properties for sale. The suit says that the bank knowingly drove up the value of the properties, made massive loans and then charged exorbitant loan fees that it knew the resorts wouldn't be able to pay. The suit alleges that all this was done so the banks could take control of the resorts.

Tags: credit suisse, Credit Suisse Group, CreditSuisse, CreditSuisseGroup, lake las vegas, LakeLasVegas, tamarack resort, TamarackResort, yellowstone club, YellowstoneClub

Continue reading “Credit Suisse Sued Over Resort Failures”

Tales of Woe At Lake Las Vegas

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Real Estate Developments

In good times when money is flowing and everything's coming up roses sometimes the impossible seems not just doable but necessary. A manmade lake surrounded by an Italian-style village in the middle of the desert starts to sound not like some sort of fevered heat fantasy but like a smart business decision (and you can even throw a floating ice rink on that lake for good measure). But the development at Lake Las Vegas is starting to look like a stock market mirage. The LA Times has a great piece assessing the damage and chronicling the decline of a neighborhood that has been home to Celine Dion and a Ritz-Carlton.

The trouble began last year as Las Vegas real estate continued to sink. 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 last summer. The Ritz-Carlton owned by Village Hotel Investors LLC, also filed bankruptcy and was been sold to new owners and one of the area's golf courses has been abandoned. The Ritz-Carlton remains open is offering a variety of deals that include free nights and special rates.

Source

Tags: development, lake las vegas, LakeLasVegas, las vegas, LasVegas, nevada

Continue reading “Tales of Woe At Lake Las Vegas”

Villina a Volanta, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

No decor to critique in this one, just one huge house. Villina a Volanta is the biggest home in Lake Las Vegas that I have seen so far. it is nearly 20,000 square feet with nine bedrooms, library, huge theater, exercise room and one huge wine cellar. The home has views of the lake, golf course and mountains. Elaborate bells and whistles include an old English style pub room and a rotunda with a fiber optic night sky. There is even a ballroom with a performing bandstand stage. Outside there is a bool area with waterfalls. The price of the home, $14.5 million, also includes memberships to South Shore golf, harbor, yacht, and beach club.

Gallery: Villina a Volanta

Source

Tags: estate of the day, lake las vegas, LakeLasVegas, luxury real estate, nevada real estate

Continue reading “Villina a Volanta, Estate of the Day”

Lake Las Vegas, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

Many of the houses surrounding Lake Las Vegas in Nevada have a Tuscan fantasy look to them. This one steps out of the mold a bit with a brightly colored exterior that sets it apart from the beige homes surrounding it. The four-bedroom home doesn't sit on much land but it does have its own private boat dock. The interior has a pleasing modernity although the kitchen is a little smaller than most would like. The wide windows above one of the bathtubs are also disconcerting since it looks like the peeping would be easy (the house on the right is very close).. It does have a great outdoor space for hanging out by the lake. In other bathrooms the vanity and sink seem to have been lavished with attention while the tub and toilet look like the Home Depot special. It is listed at $10 million but Zillow's zestimate has it at $4,151,592. I predict it might eventually sell for closer to Zillow's guess than the list price.

Gallery: Lake Las Vegas

Source

Tags: estate of the day, lake las vegas, LakeLasVegas, nevada real estate

Continue reading “Lake Las Vegas, Estate of the Day”

Lake Las Vegas Gets New Timeshare and Fractional Options

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Luxury Travel & Hotels

The Lake Las Vegas Resort is expanding by leaps and bounds. Already home to a Ritz-Carlton, the Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort and the charming MonteLago Village Resort, the resort will now have a 200-Unit Hilton Grand Vacations timeshare resort and a 50-Unit Waldorf=Astoria fractional project. The project will be developed on a 17.5 acre lakefront parcel overlooking the 17th hole and the 18th tee of the Jack Nicklaus-designed Reflection Bay Golf Course. The Waldorf=Astoria project at Lake Las Vegas Resort is the first fractional lodging product to be developed by Hilton (we mentioned the creation of this brand last year). Development of the project is currently in the design phase, with groundbreaking targeted for early 2008 and an opening date projected for fall of 2009.

Source

Tags: hilton, lake las vegas, LakeLasVegas, nevada, waldorf-astoria