You may not have heard of Cay Clubs Resorts & Marinas. It's a developer based in Clearwater that feverishly expanded in places like the Florida Keys and Las Vegas since its founding in 2004.

Cay sold investors units in condo-hotels, agreed to act as landlord in renting those units to tourists and promised stellar returns to investors.

A sign that it hasn't worked as advertised: Last week Cay laid off many of its employees at its Clearwater headquarters at 18167 U.S. 19. Several of its restaurants in the Florida Keys have been shuttered. Angry investors are filing the first lawsuits.

Cay made $46-million last year but got roughed up in the housing slump. The real estate speculators that fueled the company's growth have mostly gone away.

Incidentally, the St. Petersburg Times wrote about Cay Clubs last year when chief executive Dave Clark announced he was buying Walker's Cay, an island in the Bahamas.

Adding to its string of bad luck, Cay Clubs cancelled the deal when the Bahamian government demanded the prospective owners clean up years of buried waste.