McCann walked off the job after a dispute over scheduled payments with Los Angeles-based lender SunAmerica Inc., construction industry sources intimate with the project tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity. None of the parties could be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline.

Although the hotels have separate owners, McCann was operating as the builder/developer for both ventures. Ritz-Carlton Co. will manage both properties.

According to published reports, McCann president Bruce Fahey was part of an investment group that borrowed $125 million for the project from various lenders, including SunAmerica. When McCann left, SunAmerica stepped in as developer of the Coconut Grove Ritz. SunAmerica is targeting a September opening date.

In Miami Beach, DiLido Beach Resort, developer of the South Beach Ritz, hopes to have a new contractor by April 28. The 375-room, block-long Ritz at once-fashionable Collins Avenue and Lincoln Road, will meld the 49-year-old DiLido Hotel into the new structure.

The Beach Ritz was scheduled to open this summer. The hotel is shooting for a 2003 opening at an undetermined date.

The twin-tower Grove Ritz has occupants in the first condominium tower, the developer has confirmed. The second hotel tower is five months away from completion.

The contractor-owner clashes come as Miami experiences a wave of eight new class A hotel openings over the past two years, despite a traveler-tourist slowdown from 9-11.