Mathis Brothers Furniture has long sought to open one of their sleep centers in Midwest City.
Last year, a member of the Mathis leadership team unexpectedly appeared before the Midwest City council to officially announce the business’ intentions to locate here.
After that meeting, talk of a Mathis Sleep Center did not surface again until Jan. 7 when Midwest City’s Board of Adjustment discussed an application for a variance on parking requirements.
Current Planning Manager Ron Green said Mathis Sleep Center asked to have 50 parking spots instead of 60, which is the required amount based on square footage, according to the city’s building codes.
The board approved 52 parking spaces and now the city waits to receive the building permit request as the next step, Green said.
But before that happens, Kerry Tramel told the EastWord News that in approximately three weeks, he anticipates closing on the property Mathis has identified for a Mathis Sleep Center. Tramel is the president of Lady Americana, a mattress company owned by the Mathis corporation.
"We have found what we thought was the right location, however it is not as large as we need to build a sleep center," Tramel wrote in a letter to the city. "After researching this site, we found that if we were granted a variance for the city parking requirements, then this site would be usable and we could proceed with our purchase."
The proposed property, currently owned by Miller Operating Co., is located on 1.4 acres on the northeast corner of SE 29th Street and N. Marshall Drive. This is just east of the Town Center Plaza and Cheddar’s restaurant, in the open field by U-Haul Moving & Storage.
Proposed plans show the building will face south to SE 29th Street with the main entrance and parking area in front. More parking and a loading dock, combined with another entrance will be located for traffic to enter off of N. Marshall Drive.
The sleep center will be approximately 13,350 square feet.
With the parking spot variance considered, Tramel said even at the most successful Mathis Sleep Center stores, the maximum of spaces taken is 10 at any given time.
"Our business model is predicted on high volume with low traffic," Tramel said. "Our stores see an average of 10 customers per day."
