Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG, owner of the $3.9 billion Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, is offering to partially refund deposits to some condominium buyers in the delayed project.

A Deutsche Bank unit that took over the Cosmopolitan in a foreclosure is offering buyers of West Tower units 74 percent of their deposit principal to walk away, according to a copy of the proposal provided by Sigal Chattah, a lawyer for some purchasers. The tower has 1,353 condo units, the documents show.

Germany’s biggest bank wrote down the value of Cosmopolitan by 500 million euros ($747 million) this year, and continues spending to complete the resort during the worst gambling and real estate slump in Las Vegas history. Neighboring CityCenter, a joint venture of MGM Mirage and Dubai World, offered existing condo buyers a 30 percent price cut this month to close sales.

Lawsuits filed by Cosmopolitan buyers and agents in district court in Clark County, Nevada, claim construction delays and plunging property values have made it impossible to finance the purchases.

Matthew Lalli, a Snell & Wilmer LLP lawyer representing Nevada Property 1 LLC, the Deutsche Bank subsidiary that owns the Cosmopolitan, and Anthony Pearl, the unit’s general counsel, declined to comment. John Gallagher, a Deutsche Bank spokesman in New York, also wouldn’t comment.

Lawyers for some buyers are seeking as much as 14 percent of the settlement in fees, the documents show. Some customers intend to continue their lawsuit, according to Chattah.

Home values in Las Vegas fell 55 percent through July from August 2006, according to the S&P/Case Shiller Single Family Home Price Index. The Las Vegas Strip is experiencing its worst annual decline on record, with casino gambling revenue dropping almost 14 percent in the eight months through August.

Cosmopolitan is scheduled to open by September 2010, more than two years later than planned when work began. Developer Ian Bruce Eichner defaulted on a $760 million loan in August 2008. When the project broke ground in October 2005, it was described as a “$1.8 billion-plus” resort development.

To contact the reporters on this story: Beth Jinks in New York at bjinks1@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Keehner in New York at jkeehner@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 19, 2009 18:00 EDT