New store finally filling the old Applebee’s spot at SLO Promenade

Privately held retailer Mattress Firm, which bills itself as “America’s largest specialty mattress store,” is opening a location in San Luis Obispo.

The retailer will open in the spot formerly occupied by Applebee’s restaurant at the entrance to the SLO Promenade shopping center on Madonna Road.

The eatery closed in both San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles in 2017, and it’ss taken some 6 years to find a new user for the 5,200-square-foot building. But now construction work at the store is underway.

The mattress retailer has a store in Santa Maria, among some 2,400 locations across the country.

Realtor Justin Romain of the Lockehouse brokerage confirmed the SLO lease, estimating it could take six months to complete the remodel work allowing the new store to open.

In an expansion mode recently, Mattress Firm has had a tough go of it in the past. The mattress store chain was founded in 1986 and has its headquarters in Houston.

On Oct. 5, 2018, Mattress Firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company planned to break 700 lease contracts by closing 200 unprofitable stores as soon as possible and was considering closing the other 500 stores out of the more than 3,300 it operated at that time.

Before the bankruptcy, the company operated over 3,600 locations in 48 U.S. states. Mattress Firm has been owned by Steinhoff Holdings since 2016.

In November 2018, Mattress Firm emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Asked about how leasing was going at the SLO Promenade shopping center, Romain says his real estate office is working with possible tenants at most of the vacant spaces in the center and adds they just signed a deal with a Crumbl Cookies franchisee.

The center is anchored by Sprouts, REI and Hobby Lobby, which is about ready to open.

John Lindt is the editor of the news site Sierra2theSea.net.

This story was originally published August 30, 2022 at 9:00 AM.