Jewelers Michael Kazanjian, left, and Alan Friedman, right, on Wednesday outfit models, from left, Cara Dace, Karen Fujimoto and Karen Lavern with jewelry for the unveiling party for the World Jewelry Center, a commercial park for jewelry sellers and makers. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

A vacant parcel of land in downtown Las Vegas will soon go from dust to diamonds.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and officials of California developer Probity International Corp. held a press conference Wednesday to discuss details of the 5.4-acre World Jewelry Center, a 1 million-square-foot commercial park designed to bring together jewelry retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers and consumers.

Goodman said the project furthers the city of Las Vegas' mission to "create a jewel of the desert" on its 61-acre Union Park site downtown.

"This is a phenomenal way to diversify our economy," Goodman said. "The whole world will be looking. It's not only an iconic architectural presence, but it will draw jewelry companies from all over the world. It will establish our presence in that industry. Las Vegas will now be at the forefront."

Probity International is developing the center, which subsidiary Heritage-Nevada VIII will operate.

William Boyajian, managing director of the World Jewelry Center, said the property would differ from jewelry centers in other cities in its combination of companies from all walks of the industry.

"Our goal is to make this building a one-stop shop," Boyajian said. "We'll attract companies from the diamond, color-stone and pearl (sectors), as well as custom jewelers, estate jewelers, designers and manufacturers. It's totally unique."

Probity International announced the 10 businesses who have signed on for space since company officials began marketing the center in August. Among them are Lucent Diamonds of Russia; cultured-pearl maker Robert Wan Tahiti; Moscow-based Estet Jewelry Co.; and Chow Tai Fook Group of Hong Kong.

Several of the newly signed companies have headquarters at established jewelry districts in New York and Los Angeles. Tycoon, Super Bell Jewelry and Kazanjian Bros. all hail from Los Angeles, while SimplexDiam is based in New York.

Boyajian said the companies wouldn't relocate, but would instead open satellite locations at World Jewelry Center.

"The idea is not to steal from other centers," Boyajian said. "The idea is to help people build their business in the West."

The center's office tower will contain about 800,000 square feet of space, with meeting and exhibition areas, gem-grading laboratories, classrooms and a private club. Its services will include restaurants, banks, secure shipping and receiving and a foreign trade zone for lower duties and tariffs on consumer goods destined for import or export.

Plans for the building are incomplete, but it's currently designed to have 57 stories. The Federal Aviation Administration has given a clearance to the center of up to 815 feet.

A 125,000-square-foot retail center open to the public will house a jewelry and gem museum, a cafe and 90,000 square feet of store space.

Up to 25 residential condominiums will line the office tower's top floors. The units will range from 1,800 square feet to 5,000 square feet. Probity International hasn't yet set prices for the condominiums.

The project's construction costs haven't been determined, but Robert Zarnegin, chairman of the World Jewelry Center, said the final price tag would be "several hundred million dollars."

A Probity International spokesman said the center would create more than 2,000 jobs.

Officials of Probity International said they chose to build the World Jewelry Center in Las Vegas partly because Nevada levies no taxes on corporate or personal incomes or business inventories.

They also cited a "superior" telecommunications infrastructure, the possibility of opening a foreign trade zone inside the center, the city's annual visitor volume of 40 million and Southern Nevada's brisk population and job growth as factors that drew them to the city.

Las Vegas' status as a top convention destination also encouraged Probity International. Las Vegas hosts the 40,000-attendee JCK Show, the world's largest gem and jewelry exhibition, every summer.

And across the street from the center, the World Market Center is becoming a furniture-industry hub, drawing 50,000 to 60,000 wholesalers and buyers to its complex twice a year for wheeling and dealing.

Peggy Jo Donahue, public affairs director for the New York-based trade group Jewelers of America, said she believed the center would be the first of its kind in the United States in its commingling of functions such as retail, wholesale and consumer education.

Boosting the center's prospects, she said, is Las Vegas' international reputation as a jewelry center thanks to the JCK Show.

"(The center) will really be an attraction for both tourists and people who live in the area," she said. "It will be a beacon and a resource for vendors in both the United States and overseas."

Donahue said she saw promise in the education facilities in particular.

"This project has the potential to ensure that the jewelry industry has a well-defined image in this country," she said. "Teaching consumers about the various products jewelry is made from and where in the world those products come from will be a plus for the industry."

Local jewelers seem warm to the idea of a downtown jewelry mart.

Stuart Berger's family has owned Berger & Son Fine Jewelers in Las Vegas for 30 years. Berger said he believes the jewelry center is "very viable," and that it offers Southern Nevada the opportunity to develop a diamond headquarters similar to New York's 47th Street Diamond and Jewelry District, Los Angeles' Hill Street Diamond District and Miami's Seybold Jewelry Building.

"The consistent growth of Las Vegas is bringing in all different types of people," Berger said. "Their needs have grown to the point where we need a true diamond or jewelry area, rather than making people drive all over town to find jewelry. New York, Los Angeles, Miami -- they all have one-stop-shop areas that are the first places people think of when they're looking for jewelry."

Construction of the World Jewelry Center is scheduled to begin in 2007, with completion planned in late 2009 to mid-2010.