Ritz Carlton's Lake Las Vegas Sinks
Ritz Carlton is closing its Lake Las Vegas property on May 2, 2010.  It is part of the larger Lake Las Vegas development, which was built around a man-made lake in a hilly area near Henderson, Nevada.  It is about twenty miles from the Vegas Strip, but the drive feels longer than twenty miles.  I am posting this because I went to a meeting there a couple of years ago before the financial world began to implode.  The area around the hotel was a ghost town then, it must be awful now.  The hotel and development have been in trouble for years.  Vegas is the Strip with its gambling, shows and restaurants, not an isolated, quiet hotel.  Building a resort, however nice, that far from downtown was a risky move at best.  What the heck do you do with an empty resort?   An affiliate of the lender, Deutsche Bank, now owns the property.  It's another example of an unsound deal financed with easy money.