Fontainebleau Las Vegas company files Chapter 11 - Washington Business Journal:

lyubomiradete.blogspot.com
Fontainebleau Las Vegas LLC and two of its affiliates Fontainebleau Las Vegas Holdings LLC and Fontainebleau Las VegasCapital Corp. – filed bankruptcy petition in Miamilate Tuesday. The Miami Beacb hotel is not included inthe filing. The compan y said in a news release that the decisiob to file Chapter 11 was the direct result of litigatio with lenders on the Las Vegas hote l construction project that had to do with contractuaol disputes related tonearluy $800 million in construction funding for the $2.9 billion resort-casino project, which is 70 percent complete. Lenders includse , and Deutsche Bank Trusgt Co. Americas.
The legal dispute has effectively shut down the projectfand “put thousands of peoples out of work,” said Howard Karawan, chiefg restructuring officer of Fontainebleau Las in the release. “Our goal now is to securs funding to completethis world-clasds project and restructure our existinb debt.” Fontainebleau Las Vegaxs reached a provisional agreement with a group of its non-defaultingt lenders for the use of cash for the administratio of its bankruptcy case, and is in negotiations to obtain financingy to restart construction on that project. Fontainebleau Miam i Beach, which is a separatee legal entity, continues to operate as normal.
Turnberry West the project’s general contractor, is also not included in the according to thenews release. In 2008, Nakheel Hoteld of Dubai bought a 50 percent interest in the Fontainebleau Miami Beachfor $375 The Las Vegas hotepl companies that filed bankruptcy are baseds in South Florida because the Soffer familgy of Aventura, which also owns the Turnberrh development and construction companies, owns all the Fontainebleau companies. Jeffreyg Soffer is a principal of umbrella company FontainebleauResorts LLC, accordintg to state records.
Fontainebleau Las Vegas also withdrewa without prejudiceits $3 billionb lawsuit in Las Vegas against some of its and refiled the case in Miami bankruptcy court, wherse the Chapter 11 petitions were The lawsuit with lenders was amended on May 12 to include allegationas that Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Americax was “seeking to destroy the Fontainebleau in orderf tominimize competition” with the nearby and Casino, which is whollu owned by a Deutsche Bank subsidiary. "This claim is an attempt by the Fontainebleau'as developers to distract from the fact that they have breacheed theirloan covenants.
We will defen d ourselves vigorously against this meritless Deutsche Bank spokesman John Gallagher said inan e-mailed response. Fontainebleau Las Vegas LLC lists morethan $1 billioh in debt and a similar amount in assets on its with more than 1,000 creditors. The only South Floridqa creditor listed was International Bedding inFort Lauderdale, with a claim of $498,737.