Sean wrote on December 27, 2008 10:35 PM: I have a question. . .

How long are the neighbors of these abandoned projects going to have to look at the rusting, incomplete steel sheels?

I live a few blocks away from Manhatten West and it looks *ugly*. The builder has torn up Russel Road to the 215 and there seems to be no hope of construction starting soon. I'm worried that these incompleted, eyesores are going to become even more of a drag on local housing values.

I really think there needs to be some kind of Clark County regulation requiring builders to, at the very least, properly close abandoned projects. They should have to restore the roads and complete the exteriors of the buildings in a way to blend with the community.

I really think if a project goes abandoned for more than six months, the builder should have to knock it down and return it to the desert. I don't think a site should be allowed to stay in a construction state indefinitely.

I can only imagine the problems you would have with a building where construction stopped and started again after a long pause.

The Las Vegas skyline is looking pretty ragged with all these abandoned projects. They should either finish them, properly close them to the point where they don't effect neighboring properties, or knock them down. Views of rusting steel building skeletons don't help neighborhood values.

Dee wrote on December 24, 2008 02:45 PM: "Existing buyers remain under contract"??? Unbelievable - I'm sure when people purchased they were looking at the overall development, living there and enjoying everything Manhatten west had to offer , no one was thinking their condo would we built and their outside development would be a bunch of dirt!
Alex, why don't you move in there and let everyone know how much you love the view of "your" dirt!
This whole situation makes me disgusted on how these developers can get away with basically stealing peoples money...

Manhattan Buyer wrote on December 23, 2008 09:22 PM: I am one of the idiots who bought a condo at this development very early on. They were harrasing us two months ago when it was time to get our loan and we said we werent comfortable doing this yet since our unit was not finished. According to them it was not their problem! Well imagine that, we have already contacted an attorney and unless they want a class action suit on there hands they will be returning our earnest money! Do the right thing Alex, dont ruin your name and reputation even more!

VegasGurl wrote on December 20, 2008 12:14 PM: Vegas Grand's developer was foreclosed on. The bank took over the project, did some additional construction, and was trying to sell off the building(s) and the land. The price that they were going to have to sell the condos for wasn't feasible. My buyer got his deposit/money back ($60,000) out of escrow earlier this year, thank goodness.

Kelly wrote on December 18, 2008 04:47 PM: What ever happened to Vegas Grand on Flamingo and Swenson? Some buildings are constructed but I haven't heard anything about it in the past couple years. Is it just sitting vacate and did all the purchasers get their money back?

Mad Terrier wrote on December 18, 2008 01:19 AM: talk about abuse of the bankruptcy system.
good grief

anon wrote on December 17, 2008 08:47 PM: This is actually good news for people who bought there. It is now unlikely it will get finished before the 24 month rule for most of the deposits and buyers will now be able to get out of there contracts and get the deposits money back.

anon wrote on December 17, 2008 07:43 PM: Couldn't have happened to a nice guy. What an arrogant A S S H O L E that guy is.

In business Las Vegas from An October Interview:

Question: This is a heck of a time to sell condos. How is the slowdown affecting you?

Answer: We didn't expect the depth of the downturn, but we did expect the downturn, and we made a lot of design decisions early on from that point of view. That is one of the reasons why we succeeded. Sullivan Square, for example, was designed pre-downturn and was designed around a $600 square-foot price point. We said from the beginning that we have to assume they are going to be much harder to sell when they are done, so we have to make sure ... we can sell these for $300 per square foot and $400 per square foot.

Questions: Why aren't you having any financial woes like other projects?

Answer:The simple answer is we locked up our financing before we started construction and that is what you have to do. The key inflection point for most projects is when you stop your digging and start your vertical construction. You can finance digging based on the collateral value of the land, but to finance all the wood and steel and concrete, you have to have a lot of presales. We locked it all up early.

Dude you are done.

PayWhat??? wrote on December 17, 2008 06:54 PM: "The main problem is a mismatch of what it costs to build one of these things and what people are willing to pay for condos and office space,"...that says it all. Their stuff isn't worth anything but your stuff is worth something...is the general consensus. And you cannot compete with the foreclosed properties - and that includes commercial..
The "true cost of building" just went back to the border.

froger wrote on December 17, 2008 06:10 PM: This place was way overpriced. I checked out the sales center and the project was a cool concept, but the condos were priced way over market. And they want $3.25 sq. ft. for retail spaces. I just priced retail in Solana Beach and Del Mar that are less expensive. This ain't Manhattan my friend. This project was doomed from the beggining, I just feel for all the people that put down the huge deposits.

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