- $2.5 million of renovations are completed for the Victory Firehouse in Southside Bethlehem
- A ribbon cutting celebrates the opening of BSI Corporate Benefits' new headquarters at the location
- The renovations include modern office spaces, technology improvements, a new kitchen and re-adding firehouse-like garage doors.
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Bethlehem's Victory Firehouse is set to receive new life as the headquarters of the expanding BSI Corporate Benefits company, as its new owners celebrate 20 years in service.
Local officials, team members, family and construction partners gathered at the newly renovated space Thursday for a ribbon cutting, showing off the newly redone inside featuring a new kitchen, modern corporate office space and imagery of Bethlehem Steel and city streets inside.
The site was purchased in March for $2.5 million when it was announced to also undergo $2.5 million in renovations. It was originally constructed as a city fire station in 1926.
BSI Chief Executive Officer Tony DaRe said when purchasing that, the company had been looking to expand and had no room to grow at its current site, with this new building set to accommodate that growth as the team moves in.
"To our BSI teammates, there's nearly 50 of us that will occupy this building," DaRe said, speaking to the crowd. "It has the opportunity to grow and certainly that is the plan — to double in size to over 100 in the coming years.
"Thank you so much for all of the support that you've given."
BSI was founded in 2003, and for over a decade, it has been headquartered in the Wiley Building at Main and Market streets in Bethlehem's north side.
Just a few blocks from the old Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces, the firehouse was bought by the steel company in 1941 and served for the next 55-plus years as a Bethlehem Steel firehouse. It was later sold to a private investor in 1998 and purchased in 2006 by OraSure Technologies founder Mike Gausling.
"There's a deep, deep history that was here in the building," Gausling said when speaking to the crowd.
The old firehouse bays continue to feature a wood floor basketball court meeting space, with new glass garage-style doors evocative of the firehouse history. DaRe said the plan was to make that space available for the company's nonprofit clients.
BSI manages employee benefit programs for more than 250 companies nationwide, with additional offices in Wilkes-Barre and the Detroit area.
At the ribbon cutting, Mayor J. William Reynolds, Lehigh County Executive Phil Armstrong and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation Don Cunningham were in attendance.
DaRe said he’s delighted to be staying in Bethlehem. He said his family has deep roots in the city and within its steel industry; his grandfather and great-grandfather worked at Bethlehem Steel, taking note that the newly added kitchen was given the name "The Bull" — a nickname of his great grandfather for working on a machine of the same name who is portrayed on a mural inside.
“I think the firehouse is a great microcosm of the story of Bethlehem and the story of reinvention,”Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds
Reynolds, who praised BSI at the ribbon cutting, said at the time of the sale that he was thrilled the company is staying in Bethlehem and expanding in a building that in many ways mirrors the city’s fortunes.
“I think the firehouse is a great microcosm of the story of Bethlehem and the story of reinvention,” Reynolds said in March.
“It went through different iterations and … the fact that building can see so much success through different generations and businesses is really reflective of the story of Bethlehem.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tony DaRe is a founding funder of LehighValleyNews.com. He has no influence on our editorial or business operations.
