LAS VEGAS (AP) - With construction on its $3 billion resort halted, Fontainebleau Las Vegas resort is canceling meetings and conventions scheduled for the first half of 2010.
The cancellations were revealed in a Thursday filing seeking permission from a federal bankruptcy court judge in Miami to cancel meeting contracts at the unfinished Las Vegas Strip hotel.
Fontainebleau Las Vegas LLC also sought court permission to cancel employment contracts with 11 people who left the company since it filed for Chapter 11 protection June 9, and to get out of a lease for office space.
The meeting cancellations were for events between Jan. 1 and June 29. Some, like contracts with the Consumer Electronics Association and the International Council of Shopping Centers, were with groups that typically book multiple Las Vegas properties for annual conventions.
Developers had wanted to open the 3,900-room resort in October. Work has been described as about 70 percent complete.
With its close proximity to the Las Vegas Convention Center, Fontainebleau had been expected to attract bookings associated with conventions there.
Officials with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and other hotel and convention center operators in Las Vegas have said they will try to accommodate meetings and hotel room reservations canceled by Fontainebleau.
With the project stalled, Fontainebleau says it no longer needs office space it agreed last year to lease until April 2014 from a sister company, Turnberry/Centra Sub LLC. Fontainebleau and the Turnberry companies are controlled by Miami developer Jeffrey Soffer.
Fontainebleau said the rental space was to be used as an employee recruitment center.
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Information from: Las Vegas Sun, http://www.lasvegassun.com