Photo: Getty Images
"When Elliott Chester looks around the shopping center at Maryland Parkway and Charleston, he sees something missing.
“We don't have enough good breakfast spots around here,” he says. “And I love to eat.”
Just over a year ago, Chester opened The Garrison barbershop inside the Huntridge Shopping Center.
Built-in the 1950’s the center is undergoing major changes.
Including the vacant space next door, that just might solve that breakfast dilemma.
“Essentially from here over is going to be the new diner, coffee shop, or delicatessen,” says developer J Dapper, showing News 3 inside the space. “I’m looking for someone to be super creative. To wow us.”
Dapper is now offering a future tenant the deal of a lifetime.
From now through February 1st, he’s accepting entries in “The Great Las Vegas Coffee Shop Giveaway.”
And it is, exactly that.
Dapper is offering to build out the 4-thousand square foot space to the winner’s specifications, and turn over the keys.
Absolutely everything is included.
“We're going to provide all the FFE,” he says. “Furniture, fixtures, equipment, signage. We've got great local partners like Yesco donating signs.”
The space was the site of the old Huntridge Pharmacy and lunch counter. A business that fell into disrepair before Dapper purchased the property 7 years ago.
Now he wants to bring back that diner feel.
Offering about $1 million in goods and services to the chef brings him the best idea.
“I’d love to see a place that everybody goes to, it's their staple, go to,” says Dapper. “Everybody's got a favorite thing on the menu.”
Dapper hopes to have five finalists announced by mid-February. Then, they'll bring their concepts to the Las Vegas test kitchen downtown so customers can try the food. A winner will be announced on April 5th.
And that’s not all Dapper has planned for the corner.
He also owns the Huntridge Theater and says a tentative deal has been reached with a group out of New York to run the theater.
The anchor tenant for the entire neighborhood.
“We've signed a letter of intent with them,” says Dapper. “And we should have a lease signed within 30-45 days. Once that's done we'll work on two food and beverage tenants for the project.”
But first the restaurant giveaway. Presentations are being accepted online athttps://lasvegascoffeeshopcontest.com/
And back at The Garrison:
“I really have a feeling that in the next couple of years, this neighborhood is going to be a bigger gem than it already is,” says Chester.
Rooting for the contest winner, he has yet to meet." (KSNV)