June George was feeling disappointed last week as she rode past the wooded lot on Gravois Road that used to be grazing grounds for the animals at Grant's Farm.

"It would have been so much fun to live there," she said.

The sales trailer at Grant's Farm Manor is about to be carted away, and George and hundreds of other seniors are having to make new retirement plans.

The 84-acre property in Affton, which was going to be developed by Erickson Retirement Communities, is for sale. The 1,500 apartments, restaurants, chapel, health club and nursing facility won't be built.

"It sounded like a really good thing to do, not like a nursing home or a retirement village," said George, 77. "Now that it's not going to happen, I'm just staying where I am because it's not a good time to sell a house anyway."

I wrote about Grant's Farm Manor in April, after I heard the people who had put down a deposit to live there were getting together weekly to play cards, practice tai chi or discuss their travels. They were part of a community even before construction had started.

Dan Decker, who was the director of sales and marketing for the senior complex, said many of the 431 people on the deposit list for Grant's Farm Manor had formed new friendships, but I guess some of those relationships are on hold now.

The recession was the deciding factor on the $400 million project, even though sales were some of the fastest for an Erickson property.

Mel Tansill, a spokesman for Erickson, said in an e-mailed statement that the company "may, or may not, revisit the St. Louis market in the future based on an assessment of economic factors."

Don Zengerling, 80, made the decision to look elsewhere when the project was first delayed in May.

"It was going to be too late in my life, and I had too much work at the villa where I was living," he said.

Fortunately, he found an apartment complex for retirees nearby.

"I enjoy where I'm at now, and as long as I can afford it, I'm going to stay here," he said.

Affton may have a harder time adjusting to the loss of the project, which would have been the largest retirement community in the area. What had been an inspiration in tough economic times turned out to be a kick in the teeth.

"It was a shock, especially for all of the seniors who live here and wanted to stay in this community, close to their doctors, churches and banks," said Joan Edleson, executive director of the Affton Chamber of Commerce. "But it was a huge financial commitment that Erickson was making, and now is a bad time to build anything."

Some local businesses, though, were already counting on the project to boost their bottom line for years to come.

Bill Cieslinski's company had been catering the twice-a-week dinners for the sales presentations at Grant's Farm Manor. Exquisite Catering had invested about $50,000 for equipment and items like china and silverware for 150 people.

When the sale office closed, Cieslinski said it cut his company's income by nearly $4,000 a week, and he had to lay off four employees.

"We built our kitchen and bought all of our equipment banking on Grant's Farm Manor," he said.

Many of Decker's staff are job hunting too, although Decker has found work with another retirement community. He said he had donated many of the items at the sales office — plants, office supplies, light fixtures — to local churches, schools and non-profit agencies.

It was the right plan for the area, he said, but the wrong time.

George said it's going to be hard to find a place that fit her plans as well.

"I had friends, one in Wisconsin who was going to move here, and one in South County had put money in," she said. "It was going to be great."