*UPDATE: Article reflects changes to movement of Alpha Mortgage office personnel and the professional title of Joey Milam.*

More than 30 employees with Wilmington-based Alpha Mortgage are calling new office space near the center of town home.

Joey Milam, Alpha Mortgage marketing director, said Thursday the mortgage banking firm recently leased nearly 8,000 square feet of office space formally occupied by Trans 1, located at 301 Government Center Drive.

Milam said their employees, mostly operations staff, moved into their new digs last week.

“We’re still in the process of moving in,” Milam said.

He said Alpha Mortgage officials would keep their Airlie Road location for loan officers and key personnel.

Milam said the expansion is part of the mortgage firm’s gangbuster growth, mostly as a result of rock bottom mortgage rates, refinancing home loans for existing homeowners and more homebuyers that qualify for new home loans.

The firm is also the preferred lender for a number of realty firms throughout greater Wilmington, including Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Advantage Realty, Century 21 Sweyer & Associates and Coastal Properties. 

“We’re getting ready to hire 10 to 15 people,” Milam said. “Our firm has doubled in size in the past year, and we just ran out of space out our existing location.”

Milam said Alpha Mortgage plans to hire a number of specialists in the coming weeks, including appraisal management officials, loan officers and processing and pre-processing officers.

In the wake of expanding, Milam said the firm has upgraded its technology as well, adding that loan officers and administration is working on dual screens, and have new computers. He said the entire firm would be paperless in the next 60 days.

“We’re trying to reduce the amount of files a processor handles,” Milam said. “We plan to add about four to five pre-processors where all they do is take the file and make it perfect for processing.” 

The firm also continues growing its presence outside of greater Wilmington.

Milam said Alpha Mortgage officials recently opened its sixth office in New Bern. He said the firm is also seeing growth explode in the state’s military enclaves of Jacksonville and Fayetteville, where the firm is currently the preferred lender of a 7,500-lot  single-family community called Towne Pointe. 

“Our office in Jacksonville has been extremely successful,” Milam said. “A number, maybe 90 percent, of the loans we handle are [Veteran Affairs] loans. Fayetteville has number of VA loans, but not nearly the pace we’ve seen in Jacksonville.”

Formed in 1983, Alpha Mortgage is a full service mortgage banker with in-house processing, underwriting, closing and funding of your home. They currently operate offices in Wilmington, Asheville, New Bern, Fayetteville, Jacksonville and Winston-Salem.