In Dubai, Nakheel announced they were halting construction of the Nakheel Harbour & Tower, a 38.12 billion project that will take 10 years to complete. Nakheel also stopped work on the $790 million Trump Tower last month.

MGM Mirage and Infinity World Development are downsizing the scope of their 9.2 billion CityCenter project on the Las Vegas Strip as the gaming sector faces a weak hand. They will postpone the opening of the 400-room Harmon Hotel & Spa to late 2011 representing savings of $200 million and cancel the residential condominium component (savings of $600 million).

The recession is also hitting closer to home in Vancouver where work stopped, last October, on Holborn Group’s Ritz-Carlton hotel and condo tower. The cost of the project was estimated at $500 million and the hotel is no longer showing on the Ritz Carlton website under new opening. The Jameson House condo project is also on hold since November. Key lenders backed out of the 180-million architectural icon by Foster.

Let’s monitor the market and hopefully 2010 will bring better news.  There are still many hotel openings coming up and I will make sure to keep you updated!

This is quite impressive considering the current financial crisis affecting hotel occupancy rates all around the world and also in Vegas.  Occupancy was down with 88.3 % of rooms filled in August, down 2.9 % compared with August 2007. The privately held Harrah’s reported losses of $285.4 million for the first six months of 2008, compared with profits of $422.8 million in the first half of 2007.

Gary Selesner, president of Caesars Palace, said “This is all about the future,” “We’re building our capacity for the turnaround that will come, whether it’s one, two or three years down the road.”

Also coming in late 2009 between Bellagio and Monte Carlo resorts is Las Vegas Citycenter developed by MGM Mirage & Dubai World valued at more than 9 billion dollars. More on this mega project later.

Will The Caesars Palace need to hire back Celine Dion to fill up the hotel?  Are there too many hotels in Vegas? Will the occupancy rate grow after the recession? I think it will!  Otherwise the world’s top resort developers would not have bet on it!  Like I said before… Viva Las Vegas!