Construction halted at the Ritz Carlton in Rancho Mirage

Fallout from the recent bankruptcy of Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc., has caused construction to be halted indefinitely at the under-renovation Ritz-Carlton, Rancho Mirage.

The 20-year-old resort, formerly the Lodge at Rancho Mirage, was expected to show off the results of a $500-million, top-to-bottom overhaul early next year, but contractor Ledcor Petty of San Diego halted construction Sept. 16, a day after Lehman, the hotel’s major lender, declared bankruptcy, said Emily Hemphill, an attorney representing the hotel’s owners, GenLB Rancho Hotel LLC.

As the owners wait for the Lehman loans to be restructured, Hemphill said the hotel also was investigating replacement sources of financing for the 80%-complete hotel.

“We are waiting to get the go-ahead to resume construction,” Hemphill said.

As the project sits idle, Hemphill said on Monday that “a construction team is looking at the site to see what we need to do to keep it safe and presentable and to prevent wind-erosion issues and that sort of thing.”

When completed, the resort will be one of the few ultra-luxurious properties in the Palm Springs area.

— Valli Herman / Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photo: Room with private veranda at Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage. Credit: Courtesy of Ritz-Carlton]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 9:00 am by Valli Herman and is filed under California, Palm Springs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.