Businesses opening in downtown Las Vegas high-rise

Juhl Las Vegas on the corner of 4th Street and Bonneville Avenue in downtown Las Vegas on Monday, November 5, 2012.

Juhl, a downtown Las Vegas high-rise, is getting some long-awaited retail.

Management announced today that it has signed leases with six businesses to open at the base of the 341-unit residential complex at Bonneville Avenue and Fourth Street.

They will be the first retail shops to open at Juhl, a stylish property that was lost to foreclosure after the economy collapsed and sold with four other valley complexes in a bulk deal more than a year ago.

The new tenants are: Tui Lifestyle, a home-furnishings store; Le Phõ, a Vietnamese restaurant; Box Human Landscapers, a body-waxing business; Greens and Proteins, a health-food cafe; Classic Jewel, a ‘50s-themed bar; and Audio Video Boutique, a home-entertainment equipment retailer.

They are scheduled to start opening by this summer.

Unlike much of downtown’s new retail scene, the stores are unrelated to Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s Downtown Project, a privately funded redevelopment enterprise, Juhl management said.

“It’s a testament to what the Downtown Project began, but it also represents a new era of businesses relocating or starting in downtown on their own,” Uri Vaknin, a partner with Juhl co-owner KRE Capital, said in a news release.

Juhl was built in 2008 as a for-sale condo complex, and buyers picked up 35 units. However, the bulk of the high-rise was lost to foreclosure in 2012, a few years after Chicago-based Corus Bank, which had financed construction of the Juhl, collapsed.

New owner ST Residential took charge of other properties financed by Corus — including downtown high-rise the Ogden and buildings in seven other states — and launched efforts to sell them all in early 2013.

ST sold its local portfolio — Ogden, Juhl, One Las Vegas, Loft 5 and Spanish Palms Condominiums — in late 2013 for $237 million combined to KRE in Beverly Hills, Calif., Dune Real Estate Partners in New York and Las Vegas-based Northcap. Juhl sold for $63 million, property records show.

The buildings were a mix of rental units and individually owned condos, and the new ownership group began listing former rental units in the Ogden for sale in October. At the time, they planned to sell units in their other Las Vegas properties over the next five years at least.

Juhl is 95 percent occupied, and the 306 units owned by KRE’s group are only available for lease, spokesman Brian Cooley said.

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