OPINION — Mayor Stanton is pushing a $20 million increase in Paradise Valley’s spending limit (Proposition 426). He is the same person who pushed the Five Star/Ritz project more than a decade ago. In that deal, the Town of Paradise Valley fronted the money for infrastructure — something it did not do for other developments in town. The developer was supposed to deliver a Ritz-Carlton.
Today, the project is bankrupt. There is no Ritz-Carlton. The Ttown is an unsecured general creditor in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas (Case #25-90607) for at least $850,000 – and with many other obligations unfulfilled.
Where’s the Ritz? It’s not here. Our money and the future of the largest, densest and worst-executed development in town history is tied up in court.
