20 specialty coffee stores to open in Nevada

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 | 11:03 a.m.

A Los Angeles-based specialty coffee and tea shop and retailer said its local partner in Las Vegas will open 20 stores in Nevada, beginning this summer in the Las Vegas area.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, which calls itself the oldest and largest privately held coffee and tea retailer in the United States, has signed its first area development agreement with Las Vegas Coffee Investors LLC, a privately held firm operated by Jeffrey Fine.

Investors in the company include the Fine family and the Greenspun family. The Greenspuns own the Las Vegas Sun.

The agreement calls for the development of 20 Nevada stores over the next five years, with a concentration in the Las Vegas market.

Fine said one of the stores will be in the Station Casinos-Greenspun hotel-casino under construction at Green Valley Ranch. He said other leases are being negotiated and the company is focusing on high-profile locations like other hotel-casinos, Green Valley, Summerlin and McCarran International Airport.

Founded in 1963, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf offers a variety of roasts and beverage blends from around the world. The company also operates its own bakery and offers a summer specialty, the Original Ice Blended drink. The company has 150 stores.