A locally owned and operated mattress store and an insurance company are two of the latest businesses to lease space in a new Porters Neck shopping center.

The Mattress Capital and a local GEICO office are expected to open in January at Bayshore Commons, a Wal-Mart anchored center at 8107 Market St., brokers said this week.

A new store for The Mattress Capital, a company led by Kirk Englebright, will occupy 4,000 square feet and become one of seven Mattress Capital locations in Brunswick and New Hanover counties.

"We want to be easily accessible in every part of town," said Kenneth Hill, warehouse manager for The Mattress Capital, when asked why the Porters Neck location was chosen for the growing company's latest location.

Hill said Tuesday the firm also opened a store recently in Calabash.

GEICO franchise owner Patrick Punzalan is moving his local office of the national insurance company from Jacksonville to the Wilmington area in hopes of opening in Bayshore Commons by Jan. 18, or at least no later than Jan. 31, Punzalan said Wednesday.

"It's a larger market, the demographics are a little bit better for us here and there's a lot of growth here in Wilmington," he said.

The new GEICO office will occupy 1,600 square feet. Eastern Carolinas Commercial Real Estate represented the shopping center in the lease transactions. Steve Hall, broker with Maus, Warwick, Matthews & Co., represented GEICO in the office lease. 

In September, ECCRE announced the addition of Shoe Show, Dollar Tree, San Felipe Mexican Restaurant, Tropical Smoothie Cafe and Dunkin Donuts to Bayshore Commons.