Fountainebleau Las Vegas Files Bankruptcy

Fountainebleu Las Vegas was slated to become one of the most luxurious casino resorts on the Las Vegas strip, offering over 3,800 rooms complete with flat-screen televisions and computers.

But on Tuesday evening, June 9, it filed for bankruptcy.

The trouble began, according to the resort’s papers filed in bankruptcy court, when an array of banks reneged on $770 million worth of loans necessary to complete its construction. The banks insist that the resort committed some default which justified their decision not to lend. The resort counters that no such default occurred, and that instead, one of the banks scuttled the lending in order to focus its money on a rival resort project being built on the Las Vegas strip called the Cosmopolitan.

Fontainebleau Las Vegas had commenced its $3 billion lawsuit against these banks in Las Vegas, but moved it to the bankruptcy court in Miami, where it filed for bankruptcy. The resort hopes to access the promised financing to pay its 3,000 construction workers and finish the project, which is 70% complete.