Juhl is a mixed-use complex with condos, restaurants and retailers in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. It includes six residential buildings, of which one is a 15-storey condo tower.

When Juhl opened in June 2009 after more than a year of delays, it was difficult to sell the 341 condo units because of the Great Recession. The target demographic had been young professionals who wished to live close to the Las Vegas Arts District, and by 2009 many of them could not go through with their purchase. As early as December 2006, roughly 60% of Juhl´s condos had been sold through binding purchase agreements, but many of these were never finalized in 2009.

In 2013, a total of 306 unsold units were purchased by a partnership of companies that turned them into rental units. In 2017, they began putting some of them on the market again as condos.

Architecture and features

The architecture firm for Juhl was Martinez + Cutri Corporation.

The Juhl property, which spans a city block in downtown Las Vegas, consists of six residential towers. The lowest is 6 floors and the tallest 15 floors. They are all connected to each other. The 341 condo units range in size from 600 sq ft to almost 2,000 sq ft.

Examples of shared amenities is the outdoor movie theatre, the pool and a CrossFit gym. The Vino Deck lounge is found on the 10th floor.

The Promenade at Juhl was inaugurated in late 2017. It is 20,000 sq ft of retail space on the ground floor, with restaurants and various other businesses.

When was Juhl built?

In 2006-2009.

The groundbreaking ceremony took place in 2006. The opening was scheduled to occur much sooner than 2009, but construction delays derailed those plans.

Short facts about Juhl

Location: Downtown Las Vegas

Address: 353 East Bonneville Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Coordinates: 36.163681°N 115.146469°W

Developer: CityMark Development

Architecture firms: Martinez + Cutri Corporation

Structural engineer: Glotman Simpson of Vancouver

Main contractor: Turner Construction

In-residence programs

Juhl launched an artist-in-residence program in 2016, followed by a writer-in-residence program in 2018. The writer-in-residence program was carried out in cooperation with The Believer magazine and permitted selected writers to live and work in a Juhl loft with an attached studio.

The History of Juhl

Background

Before the construction of Juhl, the 2.4-acre property had four houses on it. The Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency selected it for revitalization, and solicited offers from various companies to redevelop the site. In 2004, they picked the San Diego-based CityMark Development for the project, a developer famous for having revitalized San Diego´s Gaslamp Quarter area. In 2005, the deal was finalized and CityMark purchased the 2.4-acre Las Vegas property for 5.2 million USD.

CityMark´s proposal was to create a mixed-use complex that would include 341 condos, 24,000 sq ft of retail space and five floors for parking. Instead of just one building, CityMark would erect six towers of varying height – the smallest one with just six floors and the tallest one with fifteen floors.

Construction and delays

Groundbreaking took place in March 2006. The four existing houses were quickly demolished and within a month the site was ready for underground work. In August, 600 cubic yards of concrete arrived for the foundation work.

The 15-storey tower was topped off in August 2007. At this point, 70 percent of the units had been sold, but the purchases had not be finalized. The opening of the building was planned for May 2008.

Due to construction issues, the opening of the building could not take place until June 2009 – roughly a year later than planned. According to the Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency, both minor and major structural modifications were carried out, causing the delay.

When Juhl finally opened, only 21 of the 314 units (6%) had closed escrow, and many buyers were struggling to finalize their contracts due the Great Recession. Much of the retail space also remained vacant.

ST Residential

Over $100 million of the financing for Juhl had been provided by Corus Bank, and when Corus Bank failed in 2009 their rights were purchased by ST Residential for $14 million.

In 2013, ST Residential sold Juhl´s 306 unsold condos to DK Las Vegas, a partnership formed by KRE Capital (California) and Dune Real Estate Partners (New York). The partnership turned them into rentals, and by 2015 the property had a 95% occupancy rate.

In March 2017, DK Las Vegas announced that they were putting the unsold condos on the market, but also renewing some of the rental contracts to keep the building occupied.