Florida Mortgage Company Sets Up Shop in Boca

Boca Raton is getting a new Florida mortgage company.

And it’s cause for notice by the Palm Beach County Business Development Board (BDB).

In fact, the BDB, at a meeting last week, said it was the largest project it has worked on in some time, according to the Boca Raton News.

At the meeting, the BDB extended an official welcome to NLC Financial Services, a Deerfield Beach-based residential mortgage company.

First NLC, which has many branch offices nationwide, is making preparations to move its corporate headquarters from Deerfield to a 120,000-square-foot facility within the Boca Corporate Center & Campus near the intersection of Yamato Road and Congress Avenue. Relocation is expected to take place in April or May 2007.

Kelly Smallridge, president of the BDB, said the Florida mortgage company will bring 450 existing jobs to Boca Raton and create more than 200 new jobs within the next few years.

“This is the biggest thing we’ve been involved with in several years,” Smallridge said. “Our goal was not to steal First NLC away from Deerfield. We simply wanted to retain their presence in South Florida.”

First NLC specializes in Florida mortgage loans to customers who do not live up to the credit, documentation or other underwriting standards that conforming mortgage lenders and loan purchasers stress.

Boasting six regional operations centers in the United States, including one in Tampa, the firm has seen its loan origination volumes steadily increase. In 2004, loan originations surpassed $3.3 billion.

Jeff Henschel, President and CEO of First NLC, told the audience that his firm’s core strengths are perseverance, attention to detail and customer satisfaction.

“When this company started, it only had $5,000 to its name. We’ve obviously come a long way,” said Henschel. “Hopefully, we can take our strengths and watch them really grow and prosper in Boca Raton.”

Henschel added that choosing Boca Raton as its new corporate site was an easy decision.

“In the past, when I graduated from Tulane University, I thought of all the places I could go to live. Boca became the number one choice for me,” he said. “It’s only appropriate that we move the headquarters to this city. Both it and Palm Beach County have been very good to us.”

Hopefully, this newly-arrived bad credit Florida home loan provider helps those in need achieve the “American Dream” while bolstering the greater South Florida economy as well. With the slow housing market, we need all the help we can get these days.