Despite being 70 percent complete, construction of the $2.9 billion Fontainebleau Las Vegas was halted in mid-2009 due to financial woes. Today, the abandoned project sits collecting dust, with completion nowhere in sight. Photo courtesy Tony Illia

By Steve Kanigher
24 June 2011 It wasn’t long ago that hotels, high-rise condominiums and massive retail and office complexes sprang up in Southern Nevada seemingly faster than one could drive from one end of the valley to the other. Take that same drive today, though, and you’ll likely see vestiges of the Great Recession: partially built structures with exposed foundations or steel beams — or building wraps to hide the evidence — that represent dreams put on hold. Many mothballed projects face an uncertain future, signs their owners either don’t have the money to complete construction or don’t think the economy has recovered sufficiently to make them viable. Some have also been mired in litigation. Here are prime examples: Fontainebleau There is arguably no greater symbol of the valley’s economic struggles than the unfinished $2.9 billion would-be Strip resort that became the nation’s largest commercial construction project to go bankrupt. Snapped up by financier Carl Icahn at a U.S. Bankruptcy Court auction last year for a mere $150 million, one gaming analyst has said it could be at least 2015 before the 63-floor, 3,815-room hotel opens. In a sign of the times, some of its prized furnishings were sold to other hotels. […]

Abandoned projects leave lasting reminder of economic crash via Calculated Risk