The Edgewood Co. moves hardscapes business into Lehigh Valley region

A Malvern-based hardscapes installation company has been lured to the Lehigh Valley by the boon in construction in the logistics and warehousing industries.

The Edgewood Co. Inc. opened a regional office in Hellertown to better reach clients in the region.

Damien Vrontisis, regional vice president of earth retention for Edgewood, said many of those large projects require retaining walls to maximize the space and that is an area his company plans to concentrate on in the Lehigh Valley.

He said Edgewood is currently installing wall systems at Male Road Warehousing in Wind Gap, with upcoming wall projects at the Commerce 33 Padula Road project and East Valley Logistics among several others.

“They’re a means to get the owner more space by holding back the earth to make room for more parking and warehouse space,” added Nick Fenstermaker, project manager out of the Hellertown office. “This way you don’t have a sloping site.”

Because of the tremendous industrial growth in the region retaining walls are being used more and more on such sites, Fenstermaker said.

“The day of available flat lands are all gone,” he said. “About 30 years ago they started putting up the retaining walls instead of grading the properties.”

While getting contracts to install retaining walls is the company’s main goal right now, Vrontisis said the company also has a large landscaping paver division, which he hopes will grow as Edgewood’s overall Lehigh Valley business grows.

In commercial settings, concrete or brick pavers are generally used as hardscaping surrounding a property that is more of an amenity destination, such as a lifestyle shopping center, to create a more aesthetically appealing look.

However they can be used in many areas—even rooftop gardens – to provide a stable and attractive surface.

Because they can be more permeable than other forms of pavement, such hardscapes are also popular surrounding buildings that seek to be more ecofriendly.

Edgewood already has a number of projects in the Lehigh Valley that are using pavers for such a purpose. The company is installing permeable pavers at Lehigh University’s HST Science Center in Bethlehem along with Turner Construction.

It also has a project at Lehigh’s School of business installing terrace pedestal granite pavers and other structures along with Quadratus Construction Management.

The Lehigh Valley is just a good region for the company to expand into, Vrontisis said.

“The Lehigh Valley is kind of the logistics, warehouse hub of the Eastern U.S.,” he said. “Even back when the economy was bad in 2008-2009, the work up here was still plentiful, so it made sense to move in this direction.”

The Lehigh Valley is just one area of growth for Edgewood. The company, which was founded 20 years ago by owner Tim Frey, wants to grow its operating footprint substantially.

It also recently opened a Washington, D.C. office and seeks to expand in Virginia and Maryland as well to target growing markets in those regions.

As the company launches in the region, Fenstermaker said the Malvern and Lehigh Valley offices are mostly sharing a workforce, with many of the company’s employees already living in the Lehigh Valley area, but as business grows he hopes to hire more people in this region to meet the demand.