Car show driving business to plaza

By Jeremy Twitchell

Saturday, May 23, 2009 | 10:57 a.m.

For a Saturday, it’s early. It’s not yet 9 a.m., the temperature is still comfortable and traffic is still flowing on Eastern Avenue. It will be at least another hour or two before the influx of shoppers turns the road into parking lot.

But since about 7 a.m., the Sansone Park Place shopping center on the east side of Eastern Avenue at Richmar Avenue has had a full parking lot. And it’s not SUVs and minivans, either.

Under the morning sun, a dazzling array of painstakingly maintained classic cars, muscle cars and exotics mingle and shine in the sun.

In the Cars and Coffee show, a free event held every Saturday, cars are not judged by their color, their country of origin or their options package, but rather by the number of heads they turn and jaws they drop.

“You get the Mustang club members talking to the Lamborghini club people, and that’s something you don’t usually see at a show,” organizer Salomon Braun said. “It begins with cars, but it’s really about people.”

All the automobile ecumenicalism aside, there’s something more, and in some ways much bigger, to this show.

Developer Roland Sansone, who built the center, said occupancy was down to around 40 percent when Cars and Coffee came in last June. In the one year since, he said it has risen to 98 percent.

Nearby business owners are enamored with the event.

“They bring a lot of business to my business,” said Mamad Nafissi, owner of the Pasha women’s boutique. “They’re great neighbors to have. They bring culture — great American culture — to our shops.”

Recently, Cars and Coffee’s growth caught the attention of the city of Henderson, which notified Braun that he would need a conditional use permit to continue to operate the event.

At a hearing earlier this month for the permit, Nafissi showed up to speak in favor of the permit, and other business owners in the complex submitted letters of support.

Heather Dunn, general manager of the nearby Einstein’s Bagels, wrote that Cars and Coffee brings in an extra $1,000-$1,500 in sales each Saturday.

“This show is a fantastic opportunity for all the businesses located in this complex to help increase sales, my store included,” Dunn wrote. “It would be a huge disappointment if they were to move somewhere else.”

Henderson Planning Commissioner Debra March, who lives near the show, said she passes it on morning walks and is a fan from a community development point of view.

“I think it has a real vibrancy and brings a lot to the surrounding businesses and to the city,” March said.

The Planning Commission unanimously approved the permit.

Braun said he got the idea for a local version of Cars and Coffee when attending the original event in Orange County, Calif. a couple years ago. That event is packed by 6:30 a.m. each Saturday, half an hour before it even starts, he said.

And while he didn’t expect the same level of enthusiasm in Henderson, he said the response has been far greater than he anticipated. The event draws an average of more than 200 cars and 600 people every week.

“We knew that there was a hunger for auto enthusiasts to pursue their passion,” Braun said. “We had no idea, and we were taken aback, as to how it has taken on a life of its own.”

In addition to Las Vegas/Henderson, Cars and Coffee holds weekly shows in 10 other major U.S. cities and three cities in Europe.

Braun, president of the local Porsche club and a member of several other auto clubs, said the event is a labor of love and is not meant to be a business. Cars park for free, there is no admission fee, and the only people paying him are the few advertisers who purchase booth space.

“This is not really a moneymaker,” Braun said. “(The booths) keep the cost down so that my wife lets me do this for free every week.”

Car owners, who come from all over the valley and beyond each week, say Cars and Coffee is the car show for car people.

“This is great,” said Las Vegas resident Dane Carter, who had his ’68 Chevelle Malibu parked alongside a Lamborghini convertible. “It’s a lot of fun and this is the kind of thing you want to do with your car. You don’t want fill out a lot of paperwork, you just want to roll up in your car, look at what other people are doing and talk to friends.”

Cars and Coffee also strives to fit in with the community by working with local groups. Braun frequently hosts Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts for their fundraising activities, and today, he put on a raffle to benefit Never Alone, a local non-profit that provides activities for the families of local military personnel deployed overseas.

“That’s what we want — to create a family environment,” Braun said.