Gupta had a (unique in town, so far) legal issue at the time that stopped the Icona development in its tracks: the people who sold them the land years ago invoked a codicil in the sales agreement that prevented the land from being used for something other than a hotel. Gupta has recently reached an agreement with that party (I assume millions of dollars are changing hands), and the relaunch is coming.
I think the closest parallel in town to this situation is where the (now defunct) developer of the Templar Hotel was stalling on a project they had sold called Langston Hall that they were trying to up-zone afterwards to be twice—and then twice again IIRC—the original size, to cover themselves following delays that made the original building unfeasible financially: if you don't build quickly enough, your plans can be ruined by rising material or labour costs, and then the banks will not hand over the construction financing that you arranged earlier. I'm pretty sure that this is what really killed Castlepoint's Museum FLTS project too. I'm less familiar with what happened at Liberty Group's project on Highway 7 in Concord. With lots of developers selling before they have all the zoning and other approvals needed to build quickly, I believe we have quite a number more cancellations coming over the next while. This isn't over.
Thanks for your insight. Lets hope Heaven development goes ahead with a project and launches the sale to market the balance 3 floors they had received approval for.