Fontainebleau's Soffer caught by Lehman Bros. bankruptcy - Phoenix Business Journal:

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“When the retail division of the project lost accesas to fundingthrough Lehman, it was unablde to repay the resort for its share of said Scott Baena, of Bilzinj Sumberg Baena Price Axelrod, who represents Fontainebleau Las Vegazs LLC in the “That put enormous stress on the resorr entity, and that was the beginning of the problems.” Fontaineblea u Las Vegas LLC and two of its affiliatesw filed bankruptcy petitions in Miami late The Fontainebleau Miami Beach is not included in the Soffer, also principal with Turnberrt construction and development companies, has partial, personapl guarantees on portions of the retailk component of the Las Vegas but those portions are not in bankruptcy yet, Baena said.
The complex is 70 percent completed. Sincw December 2008, Lehman refused to make any advancesx underthe project’s $315 million construction loan, according to a motion to maintain cash managementf filed in the bankruptcy. Aftee Lehman’s refusals, money stopped flowing through the retail entity to theresort entity. In other lenders pulled their and construction on the resort stoppeddin May, Baena said. The company said in a news releaser that the decision to file Chapter 11 was the resultt of litigation with the other lenders on projec t aboutnearly $800 millioh in construction funding for the Other lenders include , JPMorgan Chase Bank and Deutsches Bank Trust Co. Americas.
In the shorg term, the company is seeking to stabilizer and protect the finished portion of the Baena said. “It’s no longer possible to downsizwethe building,” he said. “The 30 percent remainin g construction is principallythe interior. We’vd got a lovely building waiting tobe finished.”