The $170 million Juhl mixed-use condominium project will occupy nearly an entire city block at Bonneville Avenue and Third Street. Photo by Gary Thompson.

Construction crews are pouring the third and fourth floors of the parking structure and residential building for Juhl, a $170 million mixed-use condominium development in downtown Las Vegas.

The project by San Diego-based CityMark Development will have 340 condo units and 24,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space in a 15-story building. It will occupy nearly an entire city block at Bonne- ville Avenue and Third Street.

With 214 "hard contracts," or binding purchase agreements, Juhl is about 60 percent sold, CityMark President Rich Gustafson said. Chicago-based Corus Bank is financing construction.

Gustafson said he's getting a cross-section of buyers from the less expensive studio units to the million-dollar penthouses. A large percentage will be primary residents in the building.

"That's one of our goals," he said. "We're looking for a lights-on building."

Juhl is attracting some buyers who had their deposits returned from failed high-rise projects in Las Vegas Valley. They're finding the price points of $400 to $500 a square foot quite favorable compared with $1,000 a square foot on the Strip, Gustafson said.

Demand for luxury condo units is coming from local residents who've lived in high-rise projects in other cities such as New York, Chicago and Miami; second-home and vacation home owners; professionals who want to live near their offices; and investors.

Juhl's project manager Alex Beaton said about 115 construction workers are on site daily and the number will grow to 200 to 225 during the next 15 to 18 months. About 70 percent are concrete workers, 20 percent are rebar workers and the rest are electrical and mechanical trades.

Turner Construction is the general contractor; Martinez-Cuitri is the architect.

NOVA TOWN: A unique, futuristic model town planned for 24 acres near Jean will be announced Thursday by creator Melissa Henry, a Brussels native who moved to Las Vegas from New York six years ago. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will speak at the event to be held at Turnberry Place's Stirling Club.

Henry's vision for Nova Town and Sage Era is an international resort community with boutique retail shops and restaurants, bed-and-breakfast accommodations, theaters and nonfossil-fuel cars and carriages.

"Our goal is to build an international model town that will serve as a new standard for other communities around the world showing a practical step towards wiser, more intelligent existence," she said. Henry's nonprofit organization paid about $1 million for the land six miles off Interstate 15.