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.

At a company as high-end as Ferrari, all customers are equal, but some are more equal than others. Those ones are the customers who get to participate in the company's exclusive XX development programs. And by "get to", we mean fork over a couple of million to play factory test driver with their own track-focused machinery. The initiative launched a few years ago with the FXX, a supercar based on the Enzo but with all sorts of added experimental technology which Ferrari has been toying with in the effort to make their incredibly fast cars go even faster. The FXX Evoluzione followed, with an even more extreme package, but at last months' Geneva Motor Show, Ferrari took the wraps off an altogether different beast: the 599XX.

Based on the all-conquering 599 GTB Fiorano, the 599XX features a host of modifications to its drivetrain and aerodynamics to turn an already phenomenal performance machine into a fire-breathing monster. Ferrari has only now released official details and photographs, revealing some of the advancements developed for the 599XX: thanks to reduced inertia, the V12 engine can rev up to 9000 rpm and produce 700 horsepower. The carbon-fiber brakes keep everything in check, while active aerodynamics ensure that the car has the optimal effect, reducing drag at high speeds while increasing downforce for cornering. As a result, the 599XX is faster around the race track than any roadgoing Ferrari in existence, and faster even than some of the company's race cars. Click on the thumbnail images below to view in detail.

Downtown Los Angeles got a big boost this week with a proposal for a $1-billion hotel, office and retail project. The project from Korean Air is being developed by Thomas Properties Group. The two skyscrapers would replace the Wilshire Grand hotel and adjoining offices being used by Korean Air. The project would be the first time a South Korean developer has created a project this large in the U.S.

Los Angeles architect David Martin, a principal at AC Martin Partners, designed the towers which may have a photovoltaic skin to create solar power. One tower will host a 40-story hotel with as many as 700 rooms and several floors of condominiums. The other taller tower will be a 60-story building offering over a million square feet of office space and a plaza and shops on the ground level. What's really amazing is that this would be the first major high-rise office building constructed in Los Angeles since 1992. Los Angeles needs a new skyscraper about as much as it needs an NFL team of its own (could be a lot or not at all depending on who you ask).

The project still has to win city approval but if it does construction could begin in 2011 and be finished in 2014.

The Mayan Riviera has gotten another big project. Grupo Grand Coral has announced Grand Coral Riviera Maya which will be located 30 minutes from the Cancun Airport and five minutes from the coastal town of Playa del Carmen. The $2.5 billion project covers 561 oceanfront acres and will include restaurants, hotels, boutiques and an 18-hole Nick Price golf course.

The ambitious development is broken into multiple construction phases which are estimated to take place over the next ten years and $700 million has been invested to date. Already underway is Mareazul which includes 300 luxury beachfront condominiums, a spa, Botanical Zen garden with Mayan sculptures and a beach club with private cabanas.

The golf course will take approximately two years to complete and will include the Nick Price Residences, 123 units adjacent to the clubhouse and with course views. These properties will be available for full or fractional ownership. When the development is finished there will be close to 7,000 residences.

More than 75% of the land will be kept in its natural state or turned into recreational parks and gardens and all greenery removed during construction will be housed in a greenhouse until ready for replanting.

An article from Bloomberg on Santa Giulia, a luxury project near Milan contains what just might be my favorite quote ever on developments gone bust. James Rehlaender, managing director at European Investors Inc., says, "When prices started to peak, developers were like crack users and would use all the money that banks were throwing at them." Indeed, and it's as good an explanation as any for what has happened at Santa Giulia, a project that was to include luxury apartments designed by Norman Foster and boutiques from top Italian brands like Dolce & Gabbana as well as hotels, schools and a church that is now starting to look like yet another project that will never be completed.

Luigi Zunino, the Italian entrepreneur behind the project is now hoping to find someone to take over the two-billion-euro development. The ambitious project is currently just a sprawl of abandoned grounds with ditches and unpaved roads. Zunino's company Risanamento SpA, is said to have 2.6 billion euros in debt from buying offices and homes around the world. Now if Zunino needs a quick sale to make some ready cash it may not come so easy. Italy's real estate prices are starting to fall. If things continue along this path Risanamento could run out of cash within months, but banks are hoping not to have to foreclose on any property. Housing cooperatives have built 1,900 homes in a southern area of the complex but now those residents are finding that instead of living in part of a growing community of retailers and businesses they are in a mostly deserted area with an incomplete infrastructure.

At the end of last year Risanamento did sell another project in Sesto San Giovanni, near Milan, to Limitless LLC of Dubai for 475 million euros but the development must be reviewed and approved by local authorities before the deal goes through.

The latest luxury project to ruffle feathers on the shores of Lake Tahoe is the Tahoe Beach Club. The new development is a planned project of condos and estate homes to be located on the site of the existing Tahoe Shores Mobile Home Park, a fact that upsets and uproots the 30 remaining residents of the park. The developers, who plan to sell the 124 condominiums at over $1 million each, are constructing a green-friendly project that will include a water treatment system. The $200 million to $250 million project will have stone-and-wood lodges with lofts and porches and there will be a private beach club including a fitness center, snack bars, restaurant and a private sandy beach. The residents of the trailer park have been offered various buyout plans including a $5,000 payment, a move to another park or the fair appraised value of their trailers but are currently holding firm even though they know they will inevitably be forced to move.

With the current state of Florida real estate you wouldn't think it would be the ideal time to sell a parcel but if you believe in the eventual resurgence of the Florida condominium market this could be a keen investment. It's a prime piece waterfront property in Miami said to be the last developable oceanfront site in Bal Harbor, just northwest of the world famous South Beach Miami. It has private Atlantic Ocean beach access and could be used as a hotel, luxury condos, private club, restaurant, etc. It is zoned for 304 residential units or 553 hotel rooms or any combination and there is direct green way access to private Bal Harbour Yacht Basin on Biscayne Bay and Intracoastal with slips to accommodate yachts of 140' plus with direct ocean access. It can be yours for $225 million.

Just about every article I've checked out regarding the announcement of a new $285 million hotel and condo building planned for Midtown Atlanta has expressed a bit of concern over the timing. Condo crisis? What condo crisis, Tivoli Properties is set to build a 53-story building with a Mandarin Oriental Hotel and 71 condos with prices ranging from $1.8 million to $15 million. The Atlanta Journal-Constititution quotes Scott Leventhal, Tivoli's CEO and president, as saying that "now is a great time to be in the planning stage." And indeed he may be right. The condo is set to begin construction next year and finish in late 2011, that is of course if they manage to secure financing and have enough presales to go forward. The project would need to be about half-sold in order to begin building. The first 30 buyers to reserve condominiums will receive $75 a square foot discounts which would work out to six figure discounts because the average condo size is over 2,500 square feet. So far 19 buyers have made reservations.

Vietnam wants your tourism dollars and is going after them with a bit of Vegas-style. Las Vegas architectural firm, Steelman Partners is behind the plans for the $4.2 billion Ho Tram Strip, which will be Vietnam's largest single tourism venture. The resort will be built on the white sand beaches of Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province, in southern Vietnam. Phase 1 of the project calls for a five-star hotel resort with 1,100 rooms, a championship golf course designed by Greg Norman, and Vietnam's first Las Vegas-style casino. The second phase will include an additional resort, another casino and more restaurants and nightclubs. When the Ho Tram Strip is complete there will be five resorts and a conference center. The first phase is scheduled to open in late 2010 and the entire complex is scheduled to be completed in under 10 years.

Another new resort is planned for Belize, an area that has been experiencing a major development boom over the past few years. The Palmetto Bay Resort at Maya Beach will be located on Belize's Placencia Peninsula in an area situated on 16 miles of white sand beaches and backed by the scenery of the Maya Mountains. Palmetto Bay will offer beachfront real estate and four star amenities and will be the first development in the Caribbean designed 'green' from inception.

The first phase of the gated resort, which is currently under construction, will be comprised of 36 whole ownership, luxury beachfront condominiums ranging from approximately 1,100 to 4,500 square feet, each with open views of the Caribbean. Prices will start in the high $200,000s. The turnkey one- two- and three-bedroom residences are spread through two low-rise buildings. Designer Julieanne Dobson who also worked on Francis Ford Coppola's Turtle Inn in Belize will create the interiors using warm woods and natural stone, vibrant contemporary textiles, and niche lit Mayan and African inspired art.

Ownership at Palmetto Bay Resort will include access to fitness facilities, conference rooms with wireless internet; 24-hour reception and security; fully equipped luxury kitchens with gourmet utensils and stainless steel appliances; balcony barbecues; and lush, mature landscaping with use of indigenous fruit trees and plants. The property will feature a 300-foot oceanfront infinity pool, a 400' private beach, beach boardwalk, and private dock.

Green factors include geothermal, solar, and water filtration technologies, which alone is estimated to conserve 1,000 gallons of water per day at full occupancy. Sales have begun on the property.

Will Baghdad be reborn as a tourist destination? That's the dream of some developers who plan to create an international village inside the U.S. embassy complex in the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq. ABC News reports that the U.S. military is pushing a five-year, $5 billion development plan to turn Baghdad's Green Zone into an area with a shopping center, condos and a soccer stadium. Navy Capt. Thomas Karnowski says a deal already has been completed for Marriott to build a hotel in the Green Zone.

Obviously a lot needs to be done, Baghdad's infrastructure is in serious disrepair. There are also some significant questions as to land ownership as well as worries over who decides what businesses in are allowed to come in to the area. And as you might imagine, the issue of security is a huge concern. Certainly there is so much work to do that a five year trajectory doesn't seem like nearly enough time.

The Canadian luxury condo market continues to surge. According to the National Post, Concord Pacific Inc. is planning a new luxury development in the hot Calgary market. The project will be located in the Eau Claire area and Terry Hui, Concord Pacific's president and chief executive, says that the project will be the most high-end building the city has ever seen. The 14-floor condominium will contain 185 grand luxury suites ranging between 1,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet. The project will be designed by Canadian architects Arthur Erickson and Peter Busby. Can Calgary support a project with units of a $1-million to $5-million selling price? Local condo watchers say yes. Check out this recent article by Richard White in the Calgary Herald. He got his hands on a copy of independent condo market research firm MPC Intelligence's newly released Calgary Condominium Market Report which shows that Calgary is still going strong, although it's not as hot as it was in 2005/2006 when projects would sell out in a couple of days.

Philippe Starck's modern Yoo designs are ending up in a rather traditional place, England's Cotswolds lakes. the popular countryside vacation destination. The Lakes by Yoo homes have Jade Jagger-designed interiors and modern angular glass and wood exteriors. Plans call for a series of 48 four-bedroom houses to be built on six lakes near Lechlande, in the Cotswolds. Homes will have lakeside views, outdoor kitchen barbeque areas, saunas, hot tubs, and exterior fireplaces. The homes are designed to be second homes and so there will be a an onsite concierge and hotel-service housekeeping. The long-range plan calls ofr 160 second homes and a hotel and spa. Houses start at £725,000.

Yoo projects dot the globe, for a small sample, check out the gallery below.

[via Country Life]

One question that continues to be asked by people around the world is just how big a project can be before it's absolutely laughable to call it green. The latest mega-project from Dubai stretches the bounds of eco-believability. It's a $54.4 billion environmentally friendly real estate project stretching over 20,000 acres. The Mohammed bin Rashid Gardens has four main clusters themed around wisdom, humanity, nature and commerce. The plan is to have 73% of the total area covered in greenery. Yes, in Dubai, a country that is pretty much a desert. The design as shown in the model above calls for plenty of large lakes and canals.

The House of Nature will have parks, flower gardens, recreational clubs, a zoo, hotels, environmental labs and alternative medicine and herbal healing clinics; the House of Wisdom will be home to a library, international universities, history and science colleges and a mosque; the House of Humanity will include the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Establishment, the Museum of Light, the Human Civilization Museum and other room for other charities such as Unicef; and the House of Commerce will include banks, financial services firms and insurance companies and colleges that will specialize in banking and finance.

Internet rumors have pegged the location of the project, which will be overseen by Dubai Holdings, to be between Al Khail Road and Emirates Road in an area that borders Downtown Burj Dubai to the north and Dubailand to the south. This hasn't been confirmed and no date has been given for the start of construction.

Big construction is going on in downtown Pittsburgh. The downtown area which has long been in a state of slow decline is looking to be revitalized thanks to a couple of major projects especially the Piatt Place project. Piatt Place will be a redesign of the Lazarus department store building. Two upscale chain restaurants, McCormick and Schmick's and the Capital Grille will anchor the building and the rest of the building will be turned into offices and condos. The residential units are new construction, built on a new slab on top of the roof. The condos start $330,000 to $1.5 million each and in an article on KDKA it has been reported that 40% of the units are under contract.

But in a nationwide market that is not, for the most part, favoring condos, there may be trouble ahead. For example at another high-end project in Pittsburgh, 151 First Side, owners have closed on more than half of the 83 units but a handful are already up for resale. At the Carlyle, a project that has currently a 6,000-square-foot penthouse listed at $2.195 million, half of the 60 units are under contract but many of those buyers are investors and the second phase of the project is on hold. It seems that the problem in Pittsburgh isn't so much a condo glut of the type that has affected so many other cities, but instead is a question of changing people's perceptions of life downtown and whether or not people are willing to pay these types of prices when for the same amount of money they could get a fairly large home in the suburbs.