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With furniture makers struggling in the current economic slowdown, some have taken the unusual step of trying to get rent reductions in their expensive showrooms at the fledgling Las Vegas market.

Is this a crack in the Las Vegas sheen? Join the discussion at the Debatables blog.

One of the tenants in the showy World Market Center, home of the three-year-old market, sent an e-mail earlier this week to about 70 others there seeking solidarity to ask for price breaks.


Robert M. Weiss, the owner of Robert M. Weiss Presents and the e-mail's author, suggests in the message that exhibitors aren't selling enough in Las Vegas to justify their costs.


Weiss, like many other exhibitors, shows his wares in High Point and Las Vegas.


"Before you take the ultimate step of pulling out of the show," he wrote in the e-mail, "perhaps you would consider joining together to sign a petition to present to Show Management? We are suggesting a petition that would ask Show Management to work with us to reduce costs ... so we can save the Las Vegas Market."


In an interview, Weiss declined to elaborate on the e-mail until he had heard more response.


His worries are not confined to the Las Vegas market, however.


"It's something I think needs addressing as does the whole situation in the furniture industry, which is in trouble," he said.


"High Point and Las Vegas have a sort of a war going and I think that's part of the problem. High Point and Las Vegas should work as team to help the business," he said.


Exhibitor complaints about prices and other conditions are common to all furniture markets, said Jerry Epperson, a top furniture expert and a founder of Mann, Armistead & Epperson in Richmond.


It's true that Las Vegas has showier, more expensive showrooms and common areas, and is spending freely to promote itself, as it did in January with a $500,000 prize giveaway program for buyers.


"Whether you're in High Point or Tupelo or any of these markets, you pay for the common space," Epperson said. "Vegas is an open and airy market and has more open space than, say, High Point does. It's part of the display and people don't like (to pay for) that but it's also part of their appeal."


But Epperson believes tenants knew what they were getting into.
"They're out there saying, 'Holy cow there's no end to it,' but they signed that contract."


A spokeswoman for Bob Maricich, president and chief executive officer of World Market Center, did not respond to a request for comment.


Brian Casey, president of High Point Market, declined to say what Weiss' e-mail may indicate about the Las Vegas market but said that High Point offers many advantages.


High Point has cost advantages and is home base to hundreds of people who know how to build showrooms from carpentry to sophisticated design, he said.


High Point's advantages drove Legacy Classic Furniture to close its Las Vegas showroom last year and exhibit only in High Point.


It was a simple choice, said Lee Boone, the company's chief executive officer.


"I wouldn't be surprised if other companies would go back to High Point only," Boone said in late 2007. "Every company today is looking to cut back and cut expenses and cut overhead."

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com