"The financial markets just turned on us," Fornella says. "The [construction lender's] requirements for presales increased dramatically and condo sales weren't happening."Pinnacle Las Vegas, estimated at $740 million, was first announced in 2005. The project was originally scheduled to be complete in June 2009. Since that time construction and completion dates had been pushed back twice. As of earlier this year, the 12-acre site on Tropicana Avenue had been cleared but no construction had taken place. The last time line announced by the developer called for construction to begin in mid-2008 and be complete in mid-2010.

Fornella says the shutdown was not related to a lawsuit filed last month by disgruntled buyers who wanted their deposits back following multiple development delays. On behalf of Florida-based Green Cable LLC and 250 other buyers who each put down a 10% deposit for a unit in the project under contracts with addendums that included certain performance targets for each side, local attorney Samuel A. Schwartz filed a would-be class-action complaint in the US District Court of Nevada. The complaint claims breach of contract and seeks upward of $5 million in returned deposits, damages and attorney fees.

At the time of the lawsuit, Schwartz told GlobeSt.com that while he would have liked to see the project built, "the construction delays have led to a feeling in most of us that we have waited long enough and there are better uses for our money. We are seeking the return of our deposits and the opportunity loss associated with the anticipated failure of the project." This week, Schwartz tells GlobeSt.com that he has not yet received his deposit back and that at this stage he is not dropping the lawsuit. "We'll have to wait and see what comes back first," he says.