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Miles from the Strip Visions of Upscale Living Dim

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Reporting from Henderson, Nev.-- At the time, it probably sounded like a can't-miss pitch:

Sunset-colored palaces. Three golf courses. Boutiques selling hand- painted silk gowns. A Ritz-Carlton. And a lake! A 2-mile-long desert lake, with marinas, an ice rink and a floating concert stage.

Few plans embodied the hubris of Nevada's go-go years like Lake Las Vegas, the wannabe Tuscan village launched two decades ago 17 miles from the Las Vegas Strip. Over the years, Michael Jackson dodged paparazzi at the Ritz- Carlton. Elizabeth Taylor jetted in for her 75th birthday. Celine Dion bought a million- dollar home.

Conceived as a competitor to upscale getaway Palm Desert, Lake Las Vegas, on some days, is now more a lavish ghost town. The 3,600-acre development, like so many in Clark County, suffered one malady after another.

The lake, at one point, even sprang a leak.

“I wanted to see how bad it was," said Vince Gassetto, a contractor strolling the hushed shopping district one recent afternoon.

What's sometimes bemoaned as “Lake Lost Vegas" is a microcosm of the tattered Nevada economy -- victim of a flailing housing market, listless tourism and dwindling consumer spending. Like the beleaguered Strip, it relied too heavily on high-end clientele.

The development's one gambling hall, Casino Monte Lago, will close Sunday -- a rare event in southern Nevada, where casinos almost always survive. A four-star hotel, the nearly 350-room Ritz-Carlton, will shut down in May, a first for the hotel chain.

Homeowners and some analysts portray these as the last setbacks for a place whose beauty and serenity, they say, will draw investors once the economy rebounds.

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