Yes, there are several uses to the "does anyone know a ... in the area".
In some cases, such as this one and the yoga one that @leasedaudi mentions, it's about targeting a specific target audience for recruitment (it means they can fit their spiel to the group before spamming them en masse).
In others, it's part of "I'm considerably richer than you" attraction marketing, along the lines of "does anyone know someone who restores priceless Ming vases in the area?"...