SUNBURY — The Social Security office is moving from 300 Market St. to a larger office near the Susquehanna Valley Mall in Hummels Wharf at nearly triple the current rent.

The new building, at 1 Susquehanna Valley Mall Drive in Hummels Wharf, will cost the federal government $314,286 a year for the lease between the U.S. General Services Administration and Susquehanna Valley Mall Associates LP.

The annual rent at the current location on 300 Market St. in Sunbury is $116,000.

But, according to Gina Blyther Gilliam, regonal public affairs officer for the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. General Services Administration in Philadelphia, the Sunbury office rate was negotiated in 1997, and the space "no longer meets the requirements of the Social Security Administration."

The move is being made because of an increase in visitors, officials said.

The Sunbury office serves Northumberland, Snyder and Union counties. It saw 15,866 visits in 2008. So far this year, the office has received 13,759 visitors.

"We needed more space," said Aidan Diviny, a public relations employee for the Social Security Administration. "The current office did not meet our space requirements."

The new building contains 8,135 rentable square feet, priced at $38.63 per year. The current building has 6,874 rentable square feet, at a cost of $16.75 per square foot.

The new lease was awarded through a competitive procurement, Gilliam said.

"After a competition, we determined the new location offered the best value to the government," she said.

Construction of the new building began in mid-March.

Before the agency settled into its current space at 300 Market St., the Social Security Administration rented a building at South 10th and Market streets from 1975 to 1992.

The all-inclusive annual rental cost of the 3,850 square-foot space was $25,000, or $6.25 per square foot.

The closest office is 27 miles away in Bloomsburg, and serves both Columbia and Montour counties. The lease is $15.07 per square foot, and contains 5,060 rentable square feet.

The U.S. Social Security Administration assists with retirement, survivors and disability insurance programs, Supplemental Security Income and Medicare.