Wheelock Travel, Inc. will move downstairs from its current location on Main Street to a street level space above Peter Christian's Tavern by the end of this month.
Wheelock, now located on the second floor of the building, signed a year-long sublease with Redpath & Co. Commercial Realtors approximately three weeks ago, Wheelock Travel Co-owner Nancy Johnson said.
A gift shop, Trillium, occupied the space until about a month and a half ago, a representative of Redpath Realtors said.
Wheelock, one of four travel agencies in Hanover, outgrew its 400 sq. foot space down the hall from Wheelock Books, Johnson said.
The new location will make the agency "more visible and more accessible," Johnson said. Wheelock will hire a fourth travel agent to handle increased business that Johnson said she hopes will come with the move.
Wheelock originally planned to expand its current facilities on the second floor, but when the street-level space became available, Johnson said she realized the opportunities the new space could provide.
"There will be space to sit down and wait and more breathing room," she said. "Now the space is so small we don't have places to put things as well as people."
The current facilities are "very confining and difficult to work in," Johnson said. Wheelock has room for only two or three customers to be helped simultaneously and has virtually no waiting area, pushing any line that forms into the hallway.
The majority of space in the new facility is one room, which will be divided into a waiting space and an area for the travel agents to help customers.
There is a separate room for the computers and another for the owners' offices. Johnson's partner is her daughter Catherine Johnson.
"It's a dramatic move from a little tiny space to a place like this," Johnson said looking around the large, open room, furnished with nothing but a green carpet and a sign on the window facing Main Street announcing the move.
The doors of the new facilities will open Aug. 30, but all the computers may not be running until the following day, Johnson said. The company will remain in its current location through next Friday.
Wheelock will sublease the space from Redpath for the next year and then from Bayne Stevenson, who owns the building.
