The old Perkins Restaurant & Bakery site at 3400 Lehigh Street in Salisbury Township is getting a new life as a bank branch. Construction crews have been working behind fencing wrapped in coming-soon signage, signaling that Chase is moving into the space where the restaurant was known for pancakes, patty melts, and freshly prepared food.
According to WFMZ.com, Chase plans to open a new branch at the Lehigh County address, with construction already underway at the site. The coming-soon signs posted around the property confirm the move, though a target opening date has not been announced.
Chase spokesperson Jimmy Contreras told the station the company had no information to share about the forthcoming Lehigh Street branch at that time. That leaves Salisbury Township residents watching the fenced-off lot for further clues about when the doors might open.
Part of a Bigger Lehigh Valley Push
The Salisbury Township project is just the latest in a string of Chase openings across the region. The bank's report on a Bethlehem Township branch described that opening as part of the Chase market expansion in the Greater Pennsylvania region, a framing that fits the pattern of new locations popping up across Lehigh and Northampton counties in recent years.
That Bethlehem Township branch, a full-service location at 4900 Freemansburg Avenue near the southeast corner of Freemansburg Avenue and Wagner Drive, about a mile west of the Route 33-Freemansburg Avenue interchange, was set to open Dec. 9, per the station's reporting. Chase has also opened branches at 1603 North Cedar Crest Boulevard in South Whitehall Township and 1884 Airport Road in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, in recent years, along with earlier locations at 2 West Broad Street in downtown Bethlehem and 1510 Sullivan Trail in Forks Township in 2023, and 107 North Seventh Street in downtown Allentown in 2022.
A Regional Growth Strategy
The Lehigh Valley buildout mirrors what's happening across the broader Philadelphia market. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Chase has opened 47 new branches in the nine-county Philadelphia metro area over five years, pushing its total there to 70, even as other banks shut a net total of 270 branches in the same region. The Inquirer notes the company is also adding branches in the Lehigh Valley and Reading areas, placing Salisbury Township squarely within that expansion zone.
The growth isn't just local. Chase told Axios it plans to open 160 new branches across more than 30 states in 2026 and renovate another 600 locations, building on a broader plan announced in 2024 to open 500 new branches and renovate 1,700 within three years.
For now, the Salisbury Township site remains under construction, with no word yet on staffing, hours, or exactly when customers can expect to walk through the doors of what was once a neighborhood Perkins.
