Las Vegas World Jewelry Center Plans Unveiled

Plans for the World Jewelry Center (WJC) were unveiled in Las Vegas by city officials and real estate developer Probity International Corporation. The center is intended to host the corporate offices of several hundred domestic and international gem and jewelry companies in a trade tower along with a separate, free-standing gallery of retail jewelry stores.

The approximately one-million square foot complex will be one of the largest jewelry projects in the world. The retail stores are aiming for middle-market appeal. The WJC is planned to open for business in late 2009 to mid 2010.

The project is headed by developer Robert Zarnegin and Bill Boyajian, former president of the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and current managing director of the WJC.

Tenants will own their own subdivided space in the tower, which will also include meeting and exhibition facilities, restaurants, a private club and a fitness center. The top floors of the tower will be dedicated to luxury residential condominiums with panoramic views. The adjacent three-story retail jewelry center will have a gem and jewelry museum and exhibition space open to the public.

Among the businesses developers want to attract are secure shipping companies, gem grading labs, and trade associations. Plans for a dedicated Foreign Trade Zone were also announced.

The WJC will be located in Downtown Las Vegas within the prominent master-planned community of Union Park.

“We look at the World Jewelry Center as adding value and synergy to the industry as a whole,” said Boyajian. “We are building this world-class facility so that industry professionals and other major global centers will have another marketplace with which to do business more effectively and in real-time. To be well connected, to build business, and to enhance commercial opportunities, industry leaders will want to have offices here. I am pleased to say that many of the world's leaders in multiple sectors of the trade have already signed up to join us."

Probity says it picked to develop the WJC concept in Las Vegas because there are no state corporate, inventory or personal income tax; the ability to create a Foreign Trade Zone facility within the WJC; and the city is one of the largest convention markets in the U.S. including the annual JCK Show, the world's largest gem and jewelry exhibition.