To welcome in the new year, a leading Greater Lehigh Valley mortgage firm will move to an updated shopping center in January.
The Mortgage Co. will move its 39 employees from office space on Winchester Road in South Whitehall Township to Cedar Point West, according to Jay King, president and CEO of King’s Management and Development Co. in Windsor Township, Berks County.
His company is redeveloping Cedar Point West Shopping Center at Cedar Crest and Hamilton Boulevard, also in South Whitehall Township.
King said he expects The Mortgage Co. to be in its new home Jan. 15. The firm signed a long-term lease, and construction is underway to renovate the vacant 8,000-square-foot space next to Office Depot.
“That site, there’s about 3,500 cars that drive by there every day,” said Mike Bower, principal of The Mortgage Co. “For us, it was about the exposure and being close to the highways. We do business throughout the whole Lehigh Valley.”
The new location will give the firm greater visibility, he said.
“Right now, we are in an office building which is nice, but there’s no sign,” Bower said. “It’s important for us for the consumer to know our brand. We are more than doubling our square footage from where we are currently.
“This will give us space to grow. We could hire about five more people.”
The developers are redoing the façade of the building where The Mortgage Co. will move and creating an entrance facing Hamilton Boulevard.
The shopping center along the busy corridor is getting $9 million in redevelopment efforts.
Wendy’s reopened Oct. 4, King said, in a newly built space in the shopping center.
The former Wendy’s was demolished to make for Wawa.
“We are doing site work for Wawa; they will start building in the middle of October with a March opening,” King said.
Wawa will build a gas station/convenience store on the northern corner of the property at Cedar Crest Boulevard and the Route 222 Bypass. The 5,600-square-foot store will have 12 pump stations, he said.
Aside from Wendy’s and Office Depot, the center at 480 S. Cedar Crest Blvd. has Carrabba’s Italian Grill.
The center is now fully leased, King said.
