MBNA Will Build 100,000-SF Marketing Center

The way things worked out, MBNA is so happy with the performance of its still-new Newark facility that it has just announced plans to build another, larger facility just across the street. Work is slated to begin by about mid-summer on the 100,000-sf complex, according to company officials, who haven't released any numbers on the cost of the project. The actual start of construction hinges on receiving final approvals from the Newark Planning Commission, according to a company spokesperson.

In the process of raising the company's physical presence in New Jersey's largest city to 160,000 sf of space, MBNA will also increase its local workforce from the current total of just over 400 people to more than 1,200 after the new building is finished in the summer of 2003. For the longer term, the company expects to bump its workforce here up by at least another 275 people over the following three years. The total of more than 1,500 staffers would put the combined Newark operations among the half-dozen largest MBNA locations operating in the US.

MBNA America manages nearly $100 billion in loans, mostly through credit cards. The Wilmington, DE-based company has a total of more than 25,000 employees in North America, the UK and Ireland.