FLASH: Remember "Elevation Chandler" moth-balled condo tower? Well, now this: "State is investigating high-rise developer"

We reported July 7 on the stupidest condo project ever attempted in America, the "Elevation Chandler" tower in the suburban Chandler Arizona. Construction on these $1 million plus condos stopped in April, the developer lied about having financing and now he's under investigation. Meanwhile, millions of dollars of liens have been filed against him by the subcontractors.

Meanwhile, can you imagine being one of the suckers who gave this developer money to reserve a unit? Think you'll ever see that money again? And I wonder what they'll do with the building -knock it down, or maybe make it offices one day?

This is going to happen all over the country as developments stop before they start (Ivana Trump) or stop mid-construction and become urban blight.

The developer of the stalled high-rise hotel project south of Chandler Fashion Center is being investigated by the state Department of Real Estate. The probe has to do with whether developer Jeff Cline violated state statutes by marketing the project's condominiums before he was granted a public report from the department.

It's in the investigations division," department spokeswoman Mary Utley said. "They're reviewing the whole matter." She declined to go into specifics, citing the investigation.

Cline has said he plans to put condos on the ninth and 10th floors of the hotel on the southwestern corner of Frye Road and Loop 101, where construction stopped in April at the eighth floor.

On Friday, Cline asked the city for an extension to pay for city permits that expire Monday. The permits, which would have cost $691,970, would allow electrical, heating and air-conditioning work to proceed. They were issued six months ago. Friday evening, the city had not decided whether to grant the request.

Before construction stopped, workers were operating under a permit to build the shell of the structure. That permit expires Sept. 24.

Also on Friday, Cline purchased an advertisement in The Chandler Republic that said he is preparing to resume construction by late summer on the eighth level of the hotel. Fine print at the bottom of the ad said, "Condominiums are proposed only and no warranty is given or implied that the improvement will be completed." Cline said that sentence does not imply that the condos may be scrapped.