Westmark Opens New Corporate HQ

Westmark Group Holdings Inc. has established new corporate headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla. The subprime lender said it will coordinate all nationwide mortgage operations, sales, underwriting, and closing from the new 27,000-foot facility, as well as its corporate finance, accounting, and administrative functions.Westmark was originally based in California, but began consolidating its subprime mortgage operations in Delray Beach, Fla. in 1995. "After extensive cost-benefit analysis, we determined that to sustain the record level of growth which we have demonstrated over the past few years, a move into a larger and more efficiently laid out physical facility would be required," said Mark D. Schaftlein, Westmark's president and CEO. Westmark employs about 70 professionals in its home office, supporting 28 account executives and approximately 400 independent mortgage brokers who operate mainly in the Southeast, the Midwest, and on the West Coast.