First buyers preparing to move into The Montage

The 142 sold units reflect about 40 percent of the 375 condominiums in The Montage. Leal said the discounted pricing has stirred buyer interest.

A weekend sales push earlier this month drew close to 250 potential buyers, he says, and Montage Marketing Corp. fielded multiple offers in the next few days.

That provides some consolation to Leal, who saw millions of dollars from his L3 Development go up in smoke when The Montage project stalled.

"I'm tremendously proud of what we accomplished as a team here," he says. "I invested three years of my life in The Montage."

He's kept on good terms with Corus Bank, and he defends the lender against those who blame it for the project's problems.

"This was a bank that loaned us over $100 million which we used to employ hundreds of people," Leal says.

Even as he oversees the marketing effort at The Montage, Leal is working with a team that's planning the redevelopment of the former Fitzgerald's hotel and casino into a boutique hotel and retail property.

And he's cheerleading efforts to develop retail and entertainment space on the new cap over the train trench in downtown Reno.

But Leal says he's moving forward with more caution after the brutal experience of turning The Montage back to its lender.

"What I learned is that anything can happen," he says. "No matter how much you stress-test your pro-formas, you can never stress-test them enough."