In april 2009 you wrote:
"I am very upbeat about the project and I am very happy that things have started moving on the site as we have a sold quite a few units there."
Mind you, I am not trying to chase you down as the one that did everything wrong, because indeed nobody could foresee the wordwide credit crunch, failing banks and economic downfall.
However, I feel that people must learn from mistakes made in the past. Whether or not you want to see it as mistakes, there were big failures in touristic investments before, in Spain. Resulting even in banks failing (f.ex. ING) etc. Megalomanic projects by (foreign) investors with money of others, overinvesting and simple greed.
These practices have moved over to Brazil, it seems.
These events are not on their own. I did follow similar projects in Ceara (N of Fortalaza) were very similar things happened. I understood that many of the projects there were stalled because the (preliminary) building license was not renewed. There were also unconfirmed rumours of corrupption, although the "victims" maintained that it was a political game and Brazilian bureaucracy. (as if you just can remove a sanddune in Europe).
All in all, certainly with the melagomanic projects under discussion, the market expectations were way too high. We must point out that the tourism figures from Europe are declining over the past 5 years or so. That is because (mainly) Brazil has become expensive, flights are becoming more expensive, and 7 - 10 hours (or more if connections fail, they do regulary) travel time is long.
But if also small projects become difficult to sell there must be more to it.