Our family of super awesome stores keeps growing! This time, our newest store is in the Washington, DC area.
Nathaniel Hoelk and his wife, Amanda, have owned their store in Vienna, Virginia since 2013. That store, the first Urban Mattress on the East Coast, has been so successful that this summer, they opened a second mattress store in Leesburg, VA.
Leesburg, VA is a lovely historic town of roughly 50,000 about half an hour’s drive from Vienna and a bit farther northwest of Washington, DC. Over the last three decades, this small rural town has grown a lot, becoming a prosperous suburb that’s home to lots of DC commuters.
Open since mid-July, the new store at 545 E. Market Street is the next step in Nathaniel’s goal to open multiple stores in the area. It was a natural progression, he said, explaining that the Vienna store was delivering a lot of beds to the Leesburg area with potential to do more. He hopes to replicate his experience at Vienna in the new location.
“We’ve been very warmly received by the whole DC area,” he said. “I think from beginning to end we’re just blowing everyone’s expectations away. We get great reviews—we must be doing something right.”
Nathaniel has an eclectic background. Having studied exercise science at Virginia Tech and owned his own business in that industry for a while, he then joined corporate America. After years of selling real estate in Colorado’s ski resorts, Nathaniel saw the writing on the wall after the market tanked in 2008.
A friend who’d opened successful Urban Mattress franchises in Denver introduced him to the company. The Hoelks instantly fell in love with the story, the locally-focused business model, and the idea of bringing light and goodness to a historically shady business.
“We loved the idea of a locally owned business giving back to the community and being involved within the city it serves,” Nathaniel said.
So he and Amanda decided on a fresh start. They packed up after 12 years in Colorado and headed back home to the East Coast, excited to help their new neighbors get better sleep.
The two opted for the DC area because they love the culture there and it was closer to—and about equidistant from—both of their families. (Nathaniel grew up in Virginia Beach and Amanda is from Coopersburg, PA. So the DC area was the perfect middle ground.)
The couple moved this year to Leesburg, too, so it’s now home base!
Like in Vienna, Nathaniel hopes the Leesburg store will quickly become a mainstay in the community, and that it’ll change lives through giving back to local charities 2% of each purchase, offering great, no-pressure customer service, superior products and, well, better sleep itself.
“It can totally change someone’s life if they get a good night’s sleep and they wake up well,” he said. “We want our stores to be a safe place in the community—a safe place to find quality sleep.”
Nathaniel likes to joke that he offers “free naps,” for test-driving mattresses pressure free. So grab a free nap and visit Nathaniel at the new Urban Mattress in Leesburg!