Construction trucks travel Las Vegas Boulevard on Tuesday heading to the site of Urban Village, a master-planned condominium community. Photo by John Locher.

On the heels of The Village at Centennial Springs in the northwest valley and The Curve development in the southwest comes another major mixed-use project in Las Vegas.

Infrastructure work began Tuesday on the 50-acre site of Urban Village, a $1 billion master-planned condominium community on Las Vegas Boulevard South at Pyle Avenue, next to the under-construction South Coast casino.

Urban Village is being developed by Diversified Real Estate Group, which is also doing the Club Renaissance high-rise project downtown.

Construction on the village is scheduled to start in June, with the first 464 units expected to be ready for occupancy 18 to 24 months later, Diversified President Philippe Pageau-Goyette said.

It will have five neighborhoods with 2,400 condominium homes, including brownstones, high-rises, live-work units and flats. One-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans range from 1,000 square feet to 3,000 square feet, with prices from the upper $100,000s to $1 million.

"We're going to cater to local Las Vegans," Pageau-Goyette said Monday from Arizona, where DRG has three other projects in the works. "It's a very hip, urban-type setting of life. It's jam-packed with amenities. We're trying to create a city within a city where everything is in walking distance."

Some 65,000 square feet of retail space is planned for Urban Village, with services such as dry cleaning and child care, a wine shop and delicatessen.

The site is between South Coast and a planned Station Casinos project, leading Pageau-Goyette to believe that a certain number of midlevel casino workers will want to live at Urban Village.

"I think the south (Las Vegas Boulevard) is becoming the West Hollywood or SoHo of Las Vegas," he said.

The project is being financed by Tharaldson Financial Group, which is also financing the nearby Manhattan condominiums by Gemstone Development. Pageau-Goyette was formerly a partner in that project with Alex Edelstein.

Brad Scott of Scott Financial Group in Bismark, N.D., said his company provides Tharaldson with the senior debt on the project through participation in a network of community banks across the nation.

"So this (Urban Village) gets the scrutiny of all these banks," Scott said. "What we're finding here is that it really separates itself from the 80 other condo projects out there. ... The dynamics of the project (are) something that market has not yet seen. It's a lifestyle, not just square footage."

Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research in Las Vegas, said projects such as Urban Village are becoming more attractive for workers who want to live closer to their workplace and avoid growing traffic congestion.

"It's also close to the interstate (I-15)," he said. "Some of these things are getting so close to freeways that I'm wondering if they'll ever be forced to rubberize the freeway to reduce noise. I know they're doing that in Arizona."

Carina Corp., a Las Vegas-based private home builder, broke ground in March on the 40-acre Centennial Springs, which would have a mix of residential, retail and office space, in the northwest valley. Carina plans a similar project on 38 acres near St. Rose Parkway and Eastern Avenue.

The Curve Development Co. announced plans in March to build a 42-acre suburban village off I-215 between Durango Drive and Sunset Road with high-rise living, boutique retail, office space and resort amenities.