PHOTO PROVIDED Northeast Title & Tag is opening an office in the TJ Maxx Plaza complex on Third Street in Loyalsock Township, as seen in a photo from the business’ social media.

Northeast Title & Tag held its grand opening from 3 to 6 p.m. on Friday. This will mark the 16th location for the service, said current owner Joe Grasso, whose grandfather founded the company in Clarks Summit in 1970.

“My mother joined him, and they were business partners for quite some time before she bought the business from him,” Grasso, who would later buy the business from her, said.

“This will be our furthest western location, but we have offices throughout northeastern Pennsylvania from as far north as Bradford County to as far south as Monroe County,” he said.

Grasso’s decision to open the new location, 1786A E. Third St., was based on the growth of the area.

“I started doing research and I saw how big they’ve built up Williamsport, and I looked at the current providers of title and tag services and insurance services in the county, and I realized there was definitely a need for us to have a footprint there,” Grasso said, adding their Dallas office in Luzerne County had seen clients traveling from as far away as Williamsport.

“We thought, just to make it more convenient for those customers, we would come closer to them,” he added.

Having worked with the owners of the TJ Maxx Plaza for years, Grasso was quick to jump on what he considers to be a perfect spot right next to the drivers license center.

“When you move to Pennsylvania, the first thing you need to do is get your state driver’s license, and then you can register your vehicle here, so instead of them having to go from one plaza to wherever they need to find an agent, they simply go into the DMV, get their driver’s license, walk next door and get their vehicle registered and insurance as well,” he said.

“What we do, the photo center does not do, and what the photo center does we don’t do, so we work in tandem there, especially with new Pennsylvania residents,” Grasso said, many of whom moved to the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Pennsylvania is a growing state, compared to the states that surround us, so we’ve seen a lot of new Pa. residents come through, and that’s why I thought that would be a terrific location,” he said.

Northeast Title & Tags is essentially a one-stop shop for a variety of services, Grasso said.

“Insurance is one of the most expensive items in any household or business, so our focus is not only to provide the title and tag services, but also to help our customers shop for their personal auto or homeowners insurance and also for their business,” he said, adding that Northeast Title & Tag works with a number of trucking companies across the state and country through their offshoot entity, Compliance Services.

“When you’re a trucking business and you have drivers who have CDLs, they require pre-employment and random drug screening services. We’re a third party administrator for drug screenings,” Grass explained.

But the most important takeaway for potential customers is that Northeast Title & Tags was founded by, and continues to be operated by a born and bred Pennsylvanian.

“We may look big from the outside, but on the inside, we’re still a small family business, and we’re truly dedicated to supporting the people in the communities that we serve,” Grasso said.

“I’m heavily involved with the day to day. I talk to my leadership team and have a meeting every single morning, Monday through Friday,” he said.

“I want people to know that there are people behind this business. It’s not just a big corporation,” Grasso said.

“If you need to get something to the owner, to the decision makers, it’s fairly easy. It’s not like, you know, you’re trying to call Amazon to get a hold of Jeff Bezos,” Grasso said.

“And we’ve dealt with the state for over 50 years, and were one of the first 12 to become authorized in the state,” he said.

“There are competitors, and I’m not saying they don’t do a good job, they all do, but we’ve seen a lot of things, and sometimes these deals can become heavily complex, and that’s when our knowledge and experience over the last 50 years comes to value,” he said.

“We’ve been doing this for so long, we’ve almost seen it all, so when you use Northeast Title & Tag, you’re getting the people behind that,” Grasso said, adding that his longest tenured employees have over 30 years within the business.

Being in business that long has also helped Grasso and co. secure a solid reputation.

“We’ve had long-time commercial and personal customers dating back to when we first opened, and I’m heavily involved in the legislature, looking at things that would impact the customer, so we work with PennDOT to try to be a bridge between the state and the customer,” he said.

Grasso also works to become involved with the local Chamber of Commerce wherever he sets up shop.

“We feel like that’s like the liaison between us and the community when we’re first getting started,” he said.

Grasso said he is excited to introduce Northeast Title & Tag to the community at their grand opening.

“We’re going to have beer, wine, sodas, some snacks and we’re gonna have a couple radio stations out there,” he said.

“There’s going to be some giveaways, and our entire team will be out there so people can meet them. We’ll have insurance agents on site if they want to get a free quote, and I’ll be there with my wife,” he said.

“We’re looking forward to having a kickoff ‘welcome to the community of Williamsport’ on Friday,” Grasso said.

For more information on all that Northeast Title & Tag has to offer, please visit www.netitle.org.