Developer JMC Communities has placed its $200-million Marquesas project on Clearwater Beach on hold.

Reason: The housing downturn has sapped sales.

The twin-tower project was supposed to have 142 condos and 6 penthouses ranging in cost from about $800,000 to $3-million.

But in a May 7 letter to buyers, JMC, which has successfully launched three other condo projects in Clearwater, announced it was postponing Marquesas.

The developer has offered Marquesas buyers a choice of unsold condos in its previous luxury beach front project, Sandpearl Resort.

Sandpearl has excess units thanks to investors who fled the market once they realized they couldn't flip the properties at a profit. Until Marquesas is built - JMC is building a new sales center to beef up marketing - its buyers can use the beach club at Sandpearl.

JMC is the real deal. Marquesas and its sister projects never had the wish-and-a-prayer feel your got from the likes of Trump Tower Tampa on the other side of the bay.

In the end, developers got stuck selling too many condos to investors who had no real intention of living in them. The strata of society that can afford $1-million condos is narrow.

[Carrie Pratt, Times files]