23 October 2006

Developer, Las Vegas officials tout plan for jewelry marketplace

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A developer is unveiling plans for a 50-plus story jewelry marketplace in downtown Las Vegas that a project official said aims to attract corporate jewelry and gem offices from around the world.

"It's the World Jewelry Center. We intend to live up to that name," project manager Bill Boyajian, former president of the Gemological Institute of America, said Monday. "The philosophy is pretty simple: build an enormous trade tower in Las Vegas offering security and one-stop shopping for the jewelry industry," Boyajian said of the development, which would not be open to the public. At least seven top floors would be reserved for luxury residential condominiums.

The project is expected to cost "hundreds of millions" of dollars, Boyajian said by telephone from his office in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Developer Robert Zarnegin, of Beverly Hills-based Probity International Corp., won City Council approval in July to develop the 5.4-acre site.

Officials plan a Wednesday ceremony to tout plans for the project on vacant land in the city's Union Park area - a 61-acre former railroad yard between downtown, Interstate 15 and the Spaghetti Bowl freeway interchange.

In a statement, Mayor Oscar Goodman predicted the tower would "change the face of the Las Vegas skyline and become a key landmark for the city."

At 815 feet high, it would be one of the tallest buildings in southern Nevada. It would offer more than 1 million square feet of office and retail space about 2 miles northwest of the Las Vegas Strip, which has several 50-plus story hotel towers and the Stratosphere, a more than 1,100-foot-tall structure resembling the Seattle's Space Needle.

Boyajian said the jewelry mart project includes a separate three-story retail center offering jewelry for public sale and a jewelry and gem museum. Plans call for opening by mid-2010.

The 815-foot-tall tower would be across the street from the World Market Center, a furniture convention showplace that opened a 10-story building in January 2005 and is due to open a 16-story, 1.6 million-square-foot building for its next trade show in January. That project, next to the Union Park parcel, is expected to include eight massive buildings on 57 acres by 2013.