WILMINGTON – Two years after acquiring Bryn Mawr Trust and combining its own wealth management operation with the well-established brand, WSFS Bank is consolidating several of its leased operation centers in the Wilmington area.
WSFS recently signed a lease for 30,989 square feet in the Bellevue Park Corporate Center between Philadelphia Pike and Carr Road, north of Wilmington, according to the fourth quarter leasing report by the commercial real estate brokerage CBRE. It was the largest office lease in the greater Philadelphia market last quarter.
At 300 Bellevue Parkway, WSFS will take over a space vacated by the health insurer Cigna in 2020 as it sought to consolidate its offices as well. The Bellevue Park Corporate Center is already home to wealth management offices for Black Rock and BNY Mellon.
“We believe fostering a culture of collaboration creates engaged associates, which in turn elevates our customer service. One way we are looking to do this is by bringing more associates together across fewer locations,” said Rebecca Acevedo, a WSFS spokesperson, when asked about the new lease.
Beginning this summer, WSFS will relocate about 150 associates from three offices where leases are set to expire in 2024 or 2025, Acevedo said.
Those locations include the WSFS Wealth Center in the Greenville Center, located at 3801 Kennett Pike, that is home to Bryn Mawr Wealth and Capital Management offices; the Rockwood Office Park located at 501 Carr Road that is home to its trust office; and the Montchanin Corporate Center, located at 20 Montchanin Road, where Bryn Mawr Trust had an office.
The office consolidation will offer some positive news to the commercial real estate sector, which has seen rising vacancies amid many companies’ embrace of remote of hybrid working and the corresponding reduction of office space. Large chunks of office space have been increasingly hard to fill and the absorption of nearly 31,000 square feet, even at the expense of smaller offices elsewhere, would be welcome movement.
