Approved 804,000 SF Pad-ready Site Available For Sale Or Lease

Hanover Ridge Distribution Center is an approved 804,000 square foot warehouse/distribution center that sits on an 81 acre land site.  It will be located within Hanover Industrial Estates, an existing 2.3 million square foot industrial park located just south of Wilkes-Barre, PA in Hanover Township, Luzerne County.  Key building highlights include:

Functional & Flexible Design – Hanover Ridge has been designed incorporating all features demanded by sophisticated logistics operations; cross-dock design, abundant trailer storage, high dock door ratio, wide truck courts, 50’ x 50’ column spacing and multiple points of controllable ingress/egress.

Pad-ready - Infrastructure is complete, meaning the site will be delivered in pad-ready condition.

Location/Access – Hanover Ridge sits less than one mile, and one traffic light, from Exit 164 of Interstate 81, providing the site with access to I-81, I-80, I-476 (Pennsylvania Northeast Extension), I-380 and I-84 within minutes.

Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ) Status – The site is within a designated Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ).  Businesses that move into KOZ’s are exempt from local real estate taxes, gross receipts taxes as well as Pennsylvania’s capital stock tax, franchise tax and corporate net income tax.  Further, building materials used to construct the building are not subject to Pennsylvania’s state sales tax of 6%.  The KOZ designation is due to expire in 2017. 

Immediate Proximity to Labor – The site’s location on the southern edge of Wilkes-Barre puts a reliable, low-cost labor force in close proximity. Approximately 180,000 people reside within a 10 mile radius of the site, more than twice the total in the same radius of other competitive big box locations in Pennsylvania.

Concept Plan PDF
(click here to download)

Centrally Located Prime Distribution Corridor

Hanover Ridge is located in the Northeast Pennsylvania industrial market. As a rapidly growing distribution hub in the Mid-Atlantic Region, the Northeastern PA market has emerged as one of the premier distribution locations in the U.S. and is a submarket of the larger, super-regional I-81/I-78 Distribution Corridor. 

The 81/78 Corridor has become one of the most important distribution hubs in the United States.  Fortune 500 retail and consumer product companies dominate the leasing activity in the Corridor.  These firms recognize the importance of the Corridor as an ideal staging site to serve the 1/3 of the North American population living within an eight hour drive.  

A primary driver for the rapid expansion of the Corridor has been its acceptance by the user community as a lower cost alternative to the New Jersey Industrial Market.  As available land for big-box distribution centers diminished and prices for remaining sites skyrocketed in New Jersey, more users have moved west into the Corridor.

Contributing Factors to the Corridor's Rapid Growth

Lower Operating Costs – The primary driver for the westward movement of big box activity is the overall lower cost of operation for users.  Specifically, lower rent, operating expenses, taxes and labor costs combine to create a cost structure that is 25% - 50% lower than markets in New Jersey and New York.

Access/Location – As mentioned, 1/3 of the US population lives within a day’s drive of the 81/78 Corridor.  More specifically, 80 million people live within a 400 mile radius.  This constitutes, by far, the largest concentration of population within a 400 mile radius of any meaningful industrial market in the United States.

Available Land for Development – While gaining development approvals in the 81/78 Corridor is proving every bit as time consuming and expensive as its higher priced neighbors to the east, there are still large tracts available for development.  Land prices in the 81/78 Corridor are generally priced approximately 50% less than prime sites in New Jersey and New York.  This, along with typically non-union environments, helps to explain the rent cost differential among markets.

Metropolitan Area	Population	Distance (miles)	Drive Time (hours)	Major Highway Routes
Philadelphia	5,800,000	112	2	I-95, I-76, I-476
New York City/Ports	17,500,000	125	2.5	I-81, I-80, I-78
Baltimore	2,600,000	184	3	I-81, I-70
Washington DC	5,200,000	230	4	I-81, I-70, I-270
Pittsburgh	2,400,000	265	4.5	I-81, I-70/76
Cumulative Metro Population	33,500,000

Hanover Ridge Distribution Center
Building Specifications

Leasable Area	804,000 SF
Dimensions	600' x 1,340'
Ceiling Height	36' clear
Column Spacing	50' x 50'
Trailer Parking Car Parking	329 trailer parking spaces 212 car parking spaces
Loading Docks	213 loading docks
Drive-in Doors	4 (12' x 14') drive-in doors
Truck Court	190' total
Electric Service	4,000 amp, 480/277 volt, 3 phase, 4 wire service
Fire Protection	Early Suppression Fast Response (ESFR) Sprinkler System
Zoning	M-1

Keystone Opportunity Zones are such a breakthrough idea that Business Facilities magazine calls them “the number one economic development strategy in the nation.” By eliminating specific state and local taxes within specific underdeveloped and underutilized areas, communities within Pennsylvania are experiencing economic growth and investment

Tax Liability
Binding ordinances and resolutions were passed granting the waiver, abatement or exemption of certain state and local taxes. Depending on the situation, the tax burden may be reduced to zero through exemptions, deductions, abatements, and credits for the following:

• State Taxes: Corporate Net Income Taxes, Capital Stock & Foreign Franchise Tax, Personal Income Tax, Sales & Use Tax, Bank Shares and Trust Company Shares Tax, Alternative Bank and Trust Company Shares Tax, Mutual Thrift Institutions Tax, Insurance Premiums Tax
• Local Taxes: Earned Income/Net Profits Tax, Business Gross Receipts, Business Occupancy, Business Privilege and Mercantile Taxes, Local Real Property Tax, Sales and Use Tax

Where can I find out more about KOZ tax related questions?
See the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue's KOZ web site.