Business' long search led to South Heidelberg

by Steve Reinbrecht

Three realtors spent three years looking. But it wasn’t one of them who found the right spot for E.G. Smith Inc. in South Heidelberg.

The company sells heating oil and propane and fixes HVAC systems throughout Berks County. It was outgrowing its space near the Wawa on Penn Avenue in West Lawn, so it needed a new location. E.G. Smith had purchased that 1-acre property at 3333 Penn Ave. in Spring in 1989.

But it was hard to find the right spot in Berks County, chief operating officer Scott Burky said. 

After the professionals spent years searching, he said, it was an employee’s relative who finally suggested the empty lot off Krick Lane, and the right spot was found, Burky said.

Its parent company, Rhoads Energy Corp., based in Lancaster, bought the South Heidelberg parcel in May 2016 for $190,000, according to county records.

The company moved into the new building at 1 Corporate Blvd. on Nov. 3. The 2-acre site is great, Burky said. It has plenty of room for a submarine-sized propane tank and is still central to most of the company’s employees, who mostly live in Berks. The project cost $1.4 million, according to a building permit.

Buying the land and building a new office building was a significant decision, Burky said.

“We don’t regularly build buildings.”

E.G. Smith, founded in 1923, has 12 people in offices and about 12 in the field.