$16 million building permit today (10/31/14) for a 325,000 square foot distribution center for Mathis Brothers Furniture on the NW corner of Portland and I-40.

The existing 90,000 SF structure will be demolished. The entire parcel is about 16 acres.



http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/mathis.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/mathis2.jpg

Well there goes another furniture store.

I know it's close to their store, but Interstate access in that area sucks. Which is what I would assume warehouse and distribution centers care about. But obviously not, UPS has a huge hub down the street along with a ton of other warehouses from other companies and the huge car auction house.

I've always wondered how long that parcel would be undeveloped. Always seemed to be a huge hole in the area.

Interstate access does suck in that area, but it's also right by so many of MB's stores, which also have terrible freeway access.

Makes perfect sense for a Mathis operation. It is surrounded by Mathis Brothers brands - Mathis Brother Furniture, Factory Direct, Thomasville/Drexel, Bijan Rugs, Lady Americana, Mathis Sleep Studios and the addition of Ashley Stores which are to be built. The site has access to all the different brands. So they are ending up with segmented brands that are not being warehoused on site. Thus the need for a distrubution center.

This is to be a very, very large structure that will likely employ hundreds.

Proably a verticle storage type facility... and those types of warehouse dont need hundreds of people to operate. More than likely way under a hundred.

Is the building on this property that is being demolished the old Evans furniture location?

Is the building on this property that is being demolished the old Evans furniture location?

Yes, but MB has owned it for years.

I know I liked Evans much better than Mathis both in ethics and furniture quality.

Bill Mathis new home. Tennis court on the left and house on the right. 35,000 sqft.4918

I know it's close to their store, but Interstate access in that area sucks. Which is what I would assume warehouse and distribution centers care about. But obviously not, UPS has a huge hub down the street along with a ton of other warehouses from other companies and the huge car auction house.

Warehouse space is a balance of cheap land and access, plus the need for large contiguous space that size limits where they can do without moving closer to the edge of the city. The areas near airport road are not much closer to i40 and make you more dependent on i44 which is backs up much more frequently and longer than i40. They probably looked at other options before demolishing 90,000 SF structure.

That's a lot of recliners, sofas, coat trees, hamster cages and whatever else they sell. Haven't been inside an MB store in over a decade, and rarely ever see a commercial (thank you dvr.)
But, they've been around a long time and apparently have quite the following.

So this is going to be their new store or just a distribution center?

They've tried turning it into several different types of stores over the years. But the parking lot keeps being pretty empty.

I bought my living room stuff there when it was Rooms Today or whatever, and i actually had a pleasant experience compared to the butt flea experience at MB.

That's a lot of recliners, sofas, coat trees, hamster cages and whatever else they sell. Haven't been inside an MB store in over a decade, and rarely ever see a commercial (thank you dvr.)
But, they've been around a long time and apparently have quite the following.

I caught this......LOL

But shouldn't it have been gerbel cages ?

I caught this......LOL

But shouldn't it have been gerbel cages ?

No, I hear those are free to roam in tight dark holes.

No, I hear those are free to roam in tight dark holes.

You're just a little bit young for this info, which was floating around back in the late '80's.

You're just a little bit young for this info, which was floating around back in the late '80's.

I still know the story :)

I remember that within a couple of months of the so called 'gerbel rumors', they started doing furniture commercials with their wives.

Thier commercials were ridiculous

I remember when fowler aired this commercial. I about died laughing.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Ig34BK09Q

This one is better


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTZGXo71kS8

^ OMG!!!! That is gold.

Never cared much for MB commercials, nor for chad stevens commercials, though the spoofs are good. For reasons not completely clear, Kia Soul commercials do sometimes make me laugh.

They've tried turning it into several different types of stores over the years. But the parking lot keeps being pretty empty.

I bought my living room stuff there when it was Rooms Today or whatever, and i actually had a pleasant experience compared to the butt flea experience at MB.

Rooms Today was owned and operated by Mathis Brothers.

Never cared much for MB commercials, nor for chad stevens commercials, though the spoofs are good. For reasons not completely clear, Kia Soul commercials do sometimes make me laugh.

Chad Stevens is pretty nice guy. I met him when I worked retail. The blonde and the kids in many of his commercials are his wife and kids.


Evans sold out their operations to Mathis Brothers years ago. Larry Evans is now a real estate agent here in OKC. I believe he chose to get out the business because of the stress of running everything.

I am wondering if they are going to simply store stock at this new facility or use it as a central pick up point for all of their stores around the metro. I would think a concept like that would work for them. It would also allow them to expand their showroom space at all their stores. It would be great if they could set everything up for you to buy at showroom and schedule a pickup for a certain time or go buy their at your convenience to pick the item up instead of waiting around in the store for the warehouse crew to retrieve your order.

Rooms Today was owned and operated by Mathis Brothers.

I know...that's what i meant as "they".

Kinda surprised they're tearing down the old Evans Furniture building. It's not in that bad a shape.

http://www.oklahoman.com/article/3902842?embargo=1


Mathis hopes the new distribution center will free up more parking for customers at the store, and also could pave the way for the eventual reuse of the existing distribution area for an expansion of Mathis Brothers' already expansive showroom.

The new distribution center will serve the needs of the local Factory Direct Furniture and Drexel Heritage stores, also operated by Mathis Brothers.

The distribution center will position the company for growth of the Mathis Brothers Sleep Studio stores in the metro area, as well as Ashley Furniture HomeStores.

I didn't even think about if they expanded their current store since they won't need it for distribution. That place would be massive.

Kinda surprised they're tearing down the old Evans Furniture building. It's not in that bad a shape.
It's too small to serve the purpose they are using the land for.

This entire site has been cleared.

I'm sort of new to the city. I've only been living here for 6 months (though I've been to it quite a few times since 1997). I drive by that lot every day on 40 and saw that they were clearing it off. I thought it was part of the parking area for the water park. Good to see it's going to be put to use for a commercial property.

It appears two threads have been started due to work starting on this site, so I thought it'd be useful to bump this thread.

The first rendering shows the size of the building compared to what was just demolished -- it's an absolute monster.



http://www.okctalk.com/attachments/development-buildings/7325d1396978512-huge-new-mathis-brothers-distribution-center-mathis3.jpg







http://www.okctalk.com/attachments/development-buildings/7324d1396978511-huge-new-mathis-brothers-distribution-center-mathis4.jpg

Nice! I sent an email asking for some renderings, haven't heard back though.

Interesting to note almost all the truck bays are on the south elevation which will be by far the most visible due to the frontage on I-40.

Has Mathis Brothers annouced what their plans are for their store? Are they going to demolish their old warehouse and expand?

Just some eyeballing on Google Earth, and this will be approximately the same size as the UPS Hub down the street.

Has Mathis Brothers annouced what their plans are for their store? Are they going to demolish their old warehouse and expand?

From the Oklahoman article:


Mathis hopes the new distribution center will free up more parking for customers at the store, and also could pave the way for the eventual reuse of the existing distribution area for an expansion of Mathis Brothers' already expansive showroom.

They've come a long way from the store on south Western.

That distribution center is going to be huge! They're saying it'll be just under 400,000 sq ft which is half the size of the AWG OKC grocery warehouse which serves nearly a 1,000 stores.

How much business is Mathis Brothers doing? I guess I never realized how big of a company this is.

How much business is Mathis Brothers doing? I guess I never realized how big of a company this is.

This possibly could be their central distribution hub for their other stores. They have 4 Furniture locations and 9 Sleep Center locations not including the other brands they own!

I guess it also helps that couches and mattresses are far far larger than a case of beans or cereal lol!

They moved a huge crane in there the other day. Whatever is being built down around Reno and Meridian, has 2 big cranes working also.

I'm envisioning the entire old building (including the warehouse) being turned into showroom. So you look at and buy the thing at this place, then you go down the street to the warehouse to pick it up.

They moved a huge crane in there the other day. Whatever is being built down around Reno and Meridian, has 2 big cranes working also.

I'm pretty sure the building being built at Meridian and Reno is an auto parts distribution center

This thing is pretty huge. The pictures don't do justice. If you get second, take a drive by it.

9/22/2014

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2943/15140928159_7c647a7a4a_b.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3847/15141095018_ba5edf05b8_b.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3909/15324514741_a901687022_b.jpg

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2943/15324512991_1a88500888_b.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3857/15140914589_a1c8fca6be_b.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3871/15141080438_48ce5c40b2_b.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3873/15304622246_e02f8bcc2b_b.jpg

Good shots. Yes it is massive. It dwarfs other buildings in the area and makes the rides at White Water seem very very small.

Thanks and yes I was actually quite shocked how big it is. I'm guessing Hobby Lobby's is going to be even bigger which is hard to believe.

Here's the album with a few more pics if anyone is interested. https://www.flickr.com/photos/124697475@N02/sets/72157647914329741/

Hobby Lobby would be able to hold a number of these buildings. It's going to be about 2 million square foot. That being said, I'm looking forward to seeing what this will look like when complete. It looks to be a pretty fancy warehouse building from the plans. I look at the progress every day on my way to work.

MB already has most of the east wall up now since that picture was taken a day ago. This will be a good way to fuel the expansion of their Sleep Center stores. I noticed there is a new one going in near Warren in Moore. I had never even heard of them until I went to the outlet mall and saw one there.

What I'm unsure of is how I didn't notice the framing going up for the building. I drive by it every day on my way to work at I-40 and Meridian and last had noticed only the concrete slabs. *I'm slow lately*

Moving quickly

9/24/2014

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2943/15159571057_c4b81cf1a5_b.jpg

Had to run a friend to work at UPS this week; Mathis Brothers has quite a huge distribution center under construction just north of I-40 on Portland which appears to be on schedule.



http://www.thunderfans.com/vforum/images/smilies/okc.gif "Oklahoma City looks oh-so pretty... ...as I get my kicks on Route 66." --Nat King Cole.http://www.thunderfans.com/vforum/images/smilies/okc.gif

That's the one we're talking about

How is this coming along?

Should be close to finished.

If anyone could snag a photo it would be greatly appreciated.

It looks really good. I would say most if not all the outside is done.

They were painting exterior last week, looked about 90% done. I'm not sure if all the roof is on yet, but definitely the exterior walls and windows are up.

It's huge. Dwarfs the entire area.

Had more to do on the outside than I remembered.
Haha it came out upside down so I'll had to fix when I get to a computer later.