Finally, a little more space at Normandie Center for a very crowded neighbor

Anyone who has ever visited the UPS store near the southeast corner of Central and Woodlawn knows that it’s a tight squeeze, both to park and to navigate the small store.

That’s going to change next year when the store moves across the street to Normandie Center.

“The main reason for moving is . . . we’re kind of landlocked where we’re at,” said owner Kenny Mathis.

The store currently is in about 1,300 square feet, and the new space will be almost 3,250 square feet of reconfigured space, part of which is where Best of Times currently is. That store is closing at the end of the year.

Mathis has owned the UPS store for about five years, but it’s been in that space for decades, he said.

The store already is busy, Mathis said, and he said the projected number of e-commerce packages and shipping volume “is expected to increase dramatically over the next four or five years.”

The store takes Amazon returns and ships packages. It also has mailboxes and a lot of support for small businesses, such as copying, laminating and faxing.

“I want to grow our print business,” Mathis said. “I’ve invested in some print equipment here and will continue to do so over there.”

That includes banners, fliers, posters, business cards and wedding invitations.

Mathis said the store provides a variety of corporate retail solutions, meaning it can pack items from AT&T, Cox, Apple and others.

“There’s a whole slew of companies that we have a retail solution for.”

The store builds custom wooden crates to ship all kinds of items, including big ones such as canoes, couches and whole bedroom suites.

Construction on the new space will begin in February, and Mathis said he hopes to move by June.

Evan LaRue and Stephanie Wise of Street Commercial handled the deal.

New Normandie owners Brent and Kerrie DuPont are redoing the facade of the building where the UPS store is moving, and there will be new glass and stone on the exterior.

Mathis said, “The whole center’s going to look different over there.”