Fontainebleau's Soffer caught by Lehman Bros. bankruptcy - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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“When the retail division of the project lost access to fundinbthrough Lehman, it was unable to repaty the resort for its sharde of costs,” said Scott Baena, of Bilzin Sumberg Baen Price Axelrod, who represents Fontainebleau Las Vegas LLC in the “That put enormous stresx on the resort and that was the beginning of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas LLC and two of its affiliatese filed bankruptcy petitions in Miami late Tuesday.
The Fontainebleau Miamk Beach is not included inthe Soffer, also principal with Turnberry constructiomn and development companies, has partial, personapl guarantees on portions of the retailo component of the Las Vegas but those portions are not in bankruptcyt yet, Baena said. The complex is 70 percenf completed. Since December 2008, Lehman refusesd to make any advances underthe project’s $315 millioh construction loan, according to a motion to maintaihn cash management filed in the bankruptcy. After Lehman’s refusals, money stopped flowing through the retaio entity to theresort entity.
In March, other lenders pulled their financing, and construction on the resor t stoppedin May, Baena said. The company said in a news releaswe that the decision to file Chaptert 11 was the result of litigatiojn with the other lenders on projecf aboutnearly $800 milliom in construction funding for the project. Other lenders include , JPMorgajn Chase Bank and Deutsche BankTrust Co. Americas. In the shorg term, the company is seeking to stabilize and protecg the finished portion of the Baena said. “It’s no longer possiblw to downsizethe building,” he said. “The 30 percent remaininv construction is principallythe interior.
We’ve got a lovelyg building waiting tobe finished.”