Sleep Number mattress store to replace former Whiskey Road Pizza Hut

Matthew Christian, Aiken Standard, S.C.
·2 min read

Nov. 15—Aiken may soon be able to sleep easier.

The Aiken Planning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday evening to recommend the Aiken City Council approve a request to rezone the former Whiskey Road Pizza Hut and approve the concept plan for a Sleep Number store to be constructed on the site.

Sleep Number is a Minnesota-based company that sells beds under its own brand name as well as the Comfortaire brand. The company has manufacturing and distribution centers in Irmo and Utah. It has around 650 retail stores.

The Pizza Hut on the site closed in in early 2021 after the franchisor, NPC International, declared bankruptcy in July 2020.

The applicant, Zachary Grogan of Greenville-based Magnolia Property Group, asks for the property to be rezoned from general business to planned commercial.

The concept plan calls for the removal of the existing restaurant building and its replacement by a one-story framed building that's around 18 feet, six inches tall and 70 feet long and 43 feet wide.

The plan also calls for the development of 23 parking spaces — the city's zoning ordinance mandates a minimum of 15 for 3,000-square-feet buildings — and the use of 49.6% of the land for open space.

Grogan also proposes to continue using the existing entrances from Whiskey Road and the parking lot of the Village at Whiskey Shopping Center and the utility connections and drainage.

The potential retail store is the latest in a series of developments on Whiskey Road.

Previous developments include an Olive Garden to be built at the former Golden Corral, a new Zaxby's in place of the Ruby Tuesday, a remodeled Chick-fil-A, the development of the Powderhouse Connector, redevelopment of the Aiken Mall, a coffeehouse to replace the former Checkers and a grocery store and other commercial development near the intersection of Powderhouse and Whiskey.

The commission also recommended the approval of a request to rezone three properties near the intersection of Laurens Street and Rutland Drive that would allow for the construction of a 330-unit market-rate rental town house community and the annexation and zoning of a property located at 404 and 408 Silver Bluff Road between Hitchcock Parkway and Silver Bluff Road that will become the home of a Tidal Wave Auto Spa.

The city council is expected to consider the recommendations at a future meeting.