2019 in Review: A look back at business expansions and closures

The business climate in Carbon County for 2019 was a mixed bag of openings and closings.

Here are just a few of the new entrepreneurial ventures — some new, some expansions.

Following a tough winter and early spring of closures, May brought some new prospects.

Based in Jim Thorpe, Mazzella Enterprises broke ground for the building of a new warehouse on Hatchery Road in Jim Thorpe. The warehouse will serve as a storage facility and office.

Mazzella is a business that specializes in complete home remodeling, commercial renovation and government construction services.

Salon Indigo opened its doors in Lehighton. They offer haircuts for men, women and children, but they also do coloring and highlights, bridal services, waxing, facials, lash extensions, massage therapy, advanced skin care procedures, and advanced balayage techniques.

Giant Food Stores opened on May 17 on South Best Avenue in Walnutport. The new 55,000-square-foot store has a full-service deli; a seafood department; a floral department, a full-service bakery and a beer and wine eatery. The store is expected to employ about 200 full-time and part-time workers.

And Houston-based Sharps Compliance Inc. announced plans to expand after only three years in the area.

In 2016, the company opened its first northeastern medical waste processing facility in a 40,000-square-foot shell building owned by the Carbon Chamber and Economic Development Corp.

“The northeast is a really critical area for us, because of the population density, which works really well in a route-based business,” said David Tusa, chief executive officer and president of Sharps Compliance Inc.

In June, Hidden River Credit Union opened in Hometown. It is the company’s fourth location in Schuylkill County. The others are in Pottsville, Orwigsburg and Frackville.

“We serve exclusively Schuylkill County,” said Julia Fisher, marketing coordinator with Hidden River. “We’re not like the big large financial institutions that are nationally focused; we’re local focused. We try to often give back to the community and support the communities that we serve.”

The credit union began in 1953 and was formerly known as the Schuylkill County School Employees Credit Union.

In July, Express Employment Professionals expanded its business into Lehighton. The employment staffing agency has been in East Stroudsburg for 17 years and now serves both Carbon and Monroe counties.

As summer came to a close, Vail Resorts completed a deal in September to purchase 17 ski areas owned by Peak Resorts Inc., including Jack Frost and Big Boulder ski resorts in White Haven and Lake Harmony, respectively. Vail expects to invest more than $15 million over the next two years in these 17 ski areas.

Panther Creek Pharmacy in Nesquehoning opened its doors with a ribbon cutting on Oct. 25. The business has a sister pharmacy, Home Village Pharmacy, in Tamaqua.

In December, Andy Pedraza, a community developer with the Lemic Group & JPCPA LLC, was the top bidder for a century-old church for sale in Nesquehoning.

Pedraza plans leave the former Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church as it is and maybe open it for use by the community. He also plans to use a portion of it as his home and relocate his real estate investment business from Long Pond to the former church’s office space.

Closings

In a shocking announcement on Feb 11, New England Motor Freight announced it was closing all of it locations, which included offices in New Jersey and Maryland. It planned to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey in Newark.

According to transportation business consultant, SJ Consulting Group in Warrendale, NEMF was the 19th largest U.S. carrier in the less-than-truckload sector. Its revenue for 2017 was $402 million. But an article in The Wall Street Journal said NEMF owed tens of millions of dollars to creditors such as fuel distributors, banks, and a union pension fund.

Vincent Colistra, chief restructuring officer, stated in an announcement of the bankruptcy that two years of losses, “unsustainable rises” in overhead costs and a severe shortage of drivers where the reasons for the closure.

On Feb. 15, Payless ShoeSource Inc. announced it too was filing for bankruptcy and was closing all of its roughly 2,100 stores nationwide. It was the second time it was filing for bankruptcy. The shoe store had a location in Lehighton.

In March, Haja Lanes in Palmerton announced that it would be closing the bowling alley in April.

“It’s something I never foresaw,” said Jim Haja, owner of Haja Lanes. “I was hoping to pass it on to my family.”

Haja said the property was purchased by a property development company called Posh Properties in Bethlehem. He heard a rumor that St. Luke’s University Health Network was interested in the property, but a representative from the hospital said nothing was definite at that time.

Haja plans to continue to operate his other bowling alley, Haja Rose Bowl, in Allentown.

Also in March, the Mahoning Valley Country Club in Lehighton announced that it was closing prior to the beginning of the 2019 golf season.

According to property records, the club was purchased from the bank by the Bethlehem-based Lehigh Gas Corp. in 2010. It was founded in 1927 as a private club and golf course.

All of the members were given the choice of having their membership fully refunded or transferred to Great Bear Golf Club.

In August, just shy of its 50th anniversary, Hahn’s Dairy on Hahn’s Dairy Road in Lower Towamensing Township announced its closing via a sign on its door. It was a surprise to the community and the owners declined to make any further comment.

KME in Nesquehoning sent jitters down the spine of the community in September when its employee layoffs came to light. One of the largest employers in Carbon County, KME said it was letting go of “less than 15 percent” of its total workforce. This translated into the layoff of 70 production and support employees.