Randy and Adrienne Hollifield were considering a move to Charlotte from Tampa when their online search found plans for a proposed uptown entertainment complex and adjoining condo tower.

They were hooked.

At 210 Trade, they could live next door to the sports arena and light rail line. They could walk to restaurants.

After a quick visit to Charlotte in January 2007 to view site plans, the couple paid more than $25,000 as a deposit on a corner unit, asked for work transfers and moved to the Queen City.

"It was just very enticing. We wanted to be back in an urban area," said Randy Hollifield, who had lived in Fourth Ward years earlier.

Their dreams were crushed this week when the project's developer, Charlotte FC, an affiliate of Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins Properties, filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition indicating it wanted to liquidate its remaining assets instead of reorganize.

The filing caps nearly two years of uncertainty for the project, which has been mired in lawsuits and an alleged squabble over building codes. Construction on the condo tower at College and Trade streets stopped in February 2008.

That the developer of 210 Trade filed for liquidation, instead of a reorganization, likely kills any chance depositors will get their money back, attorneys say. The tower wasn't built - only the foundation was poured, with the slab sitting atop a corner of the EpiCentre, rebar jutting out.

"It's over," said real estate attorney David Powell with Horack Talley.

The failed project illustrates how fortunes have changed dramatically from just two years earlier, when uptown condos sold for more than their listing price. It also adds to a growing number of troubled residential projects that have been delayed, killed or revamped in the Charlotte area.

Buyers at The Vue - a 50-story luxury condo tower where construction was stalled during September - received good news this week when the developer said he'd secured enough funding to finish the uptown project. Other buyers - such as those who bought at The Park at Caldwell and Third streets - remain in limbo.

That project, which went into foreclosure last year, was bought this summer by a Florida-based developer who said he hoped to finish it. It's unclear if the sale will close.

The bankruptcy filing gives a glimpse into how people lost as little as $11,000 and as much as half a million dollars in deposits for units at 210 Trade.

More than 200 people paid more than $7.3 million in deposits for 261 units between 2006 and 2007, according to the filing, which lists 59 pages of unsecured creditors.

More than half a dozen buyers told the Observer they were embarrassed and angry about the ordeal, saying Flaherty & Collins didn't respond to repeated calls or e-mails made during the past year. A call to the company was not returned.

Hollifield said he and his wife were given an option last year to get out of the building but opted to stay because they believed in the project. A month later construction stopped.

"This was going to be the place we were going to reside in and retire in," said Hollifield, 40, a manager with Compass Group.

The couple later bought a condo at 230 South Tryon. But now, with their deposit likely gone, they are considering moving outside the center city to downsize and lower their mortgage payment. The couple enjoys visiting the EpiCentre, but say the trip is now bittersweet.

"It's tough to sit there and eat a slice of pizza and look up and think, 13 floors up, that's where we would have been," Hollifield said. "It's been like a punch in the stomach."

David Pfleeger paid a $150,000 deposit for a two-story penthouse, according to the bankruptcy filing. Pfleeger said he and his wife planned to have his mother-in-law, Tina Chiofalo, move in with them. The floor plan would have allowed the couple to look after Chiofalo but still have privacy.

"It seemed a great opportunity," he said.

In anticipation of the move, Chiofalo sold her home 18 months ago and moved in with the Pfleegers in their Fourth Ward condo. Pfleeger, president of Atlanta-based AOS USA Inc, which consults clients on facilities and project management, has since turned his home office into a television room for Chiofalo.

He said he's frustrated by how Flaherty & Collins never responded to the 10 telephone messages he left.

"Things go up and things go down. I understand the realities of life and that you don't always win," he said. "But it seems like the state lets the developer take the money and not communicate with folks. It doesn't seem right."

Developer Afshin Ghazi, who built the adjoining EpiCentre, said he couldn't comment on the bankruptcy filing or Flaherty & Collins, which is involved in lawsuits with his company, The Ghazi Co.

Ghazi said he and close friends and family members lost more than half a million dollars in deposits on a dozen units. His parents, he added, had hoped to live in the tower.

In court papers, the developers blame each other for the tower's problems. Flaherty & Collins claimed The Ghazi Co. refused to provide agreements that could help them satisfy city code requirements, while Ghazi has said the developers did not get the needed financing and were using the permitting issue to "extort millions of dollars" from his firm.

Amy Antoniak knows how 210 Trade buyers are feeling. She was one of the first buyers at The Park, where she plunked down $25,000 for a unit in 2004.

An account manager with WSOC-TV, Antoniak was considering renting or selling the unit, or maybe moving in. Bullish on uptown real estate, she also purchased a condo at 230 South Tryon in 2007 after winning a competitive bidding war for her unit and paying $501 more than the asking price.

The building sold out in less than an hour, she recalled, adding "that was the climate in 2007."

Roughly two years later, she said she feels misled by The Park's developer.

"I'd run from anything pre-construction right now," she said. "If your money isn't in a bank account protected, I'd run for the hills."