The developer of Dream Las Vegas has handed the keys to the dead project to a construction company he owes $40 million.
The Dream Las Vegas hotel was announced with much fanfare, including a fanciful groundbreaking on July 8, 2022. In good faith, McCarthy Building Companies started work on the project, but the project stalled, leaving behind tens of millions in unpaid bills.
McCarthy has now been given the land by Dream’s developer, Shopoff Realty Investment, to settle a portion of the debt. The land is worth $17.2 million. Awkward.
Las Vegas history is littered with projects that started and stalled due to lack of funding. The Skyvue observation wheel (near the Dream site), Echelon (now Resorts World), Fontainebleau (now Fontainebleau), the St. Regis Residences at Venetian, All Net (hey, they moved dirt), the A’s ballpark, the list goes on and on.
Oh, we hear you. The A’s ballpark hasn’t technically stalled yet. Give it a minute. The project isn’t funded. The A’s are definitely following in All Net’s footsteps, dirt movingwise.
Oh, look, it’s a video of dozens of guys masturbating for a month straight. pic.twitter.com/Z1qXUJ8q1n
— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) August 26, 2025
The Dream fiasco is a perfect example of how starting construction isn’t the same as finishing construction.
What happens with the Dream site now? It sits, idle, until McCarthy sells it to try and claw back some of its losses.
Oh, unless you believe the developer who, in full delusional developer mode, told the Review-Journal he looks forward to buying the property back from McCarthy and “ultimately building the project.”
This is, as they say in the resort development business, pure horseshit.
Shopoff not only screwed over McCarthy, but also a number of subcontractors, including electrical, steel and drilling companies.”
When work on the project was initially stopped, developer Bill Shopoff said financing would be finalized in two weeks. That happened in March 2023. The longest two weeks ever.
So, now we get more blight on The Strip. Indefinitely. Nobody’s building anything on that site, despite the proximity to the awesome Pinball Hall of Fame.
A similar scenario is likely on the former Tropicana site. Bally’s Corp. doesn’t have the resources to build a resort and the ballpark is more than $1 billion short of funding.
The ballpark activity is a Mortenson-McCarthy joint venture.
We were told by Bally’s Corp. they’re paying for the work on the site. The A’s say they’re paying for it.
Our suggestion to the builders is to get paid up front. Working on credit with hustlers can turn a dream into a nightmare.
