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PITTSTON TWP. — The 1,800-acre CenterPoint Commerce & Trade Park in Jenkins Township and Pittston Township was developed by Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services starting in 2005.

Today, the park is home to 37 buildings totaling 9.9 million square feet. There are 51 tenants in the park and together they employ about 5,500 people.

The park is home to a wide variety of businesses, including several manufacturing and office firms, and has proven to be especially attractive to distribution centers

Reasons for Success

CenterPoint tenants were drawn by several factors that are typically considered when a company goes through its site selection process. These include:

Quick Highway Access — The park’s main entrance is less than one mile from I-81 and I-476.

Proximity to Major Markets — CenterPoint is just two hours to New York City, Philadelphia and Harrisburg. More than 51 million people live within 200 miles.

Available Space — Because of Mericle’s very active speculative building program, there is always a good selection of space available in the park. Mericle can typically accommodate companies needing from 8,000 square feet to more than one million square feet.

Affordable Real Estate — Lease prices, utilities, and taxes in CenterPoint and Northeastern Pennsylvania are considerably lower than they are in the major metro areas in the Northeast U.S.

Pad Ready Sites — Through Mericle’s ReadyToGo!™ Program, sites in CenterPoint have been cleared, graded, and compacted, and made ready for the immediate construction of building foundations. Because of this, Mericle can deliver newly constructed space faster than any other developer in the market.

Abundant Trailer Storage — Unlike many competing developers who often construct buildings on “postage stamp” sites, Mericle develops its buildings with extra elbow room, leaving plenty of ground on-site for you to park your trailers. In CenterPoint, Mericle’s ReadyToGo!™ Program means you’ll always have access to more spots than you will ever need.

Reliable Utility Service — Strong water pressure from PA American Water Company, affordable and dependable natural gas from UGI Penn Natural Gas, and very reliable electricity from PPL Electric Utilities form the backbone of a robust park infrastructure that ensures no down time for tenants.

Fiber Availability — Four telecommunications companies — Comcast, Verizon, Frontier Communications, and Level 3 Communications — have deployed fiber service in the park. Comcast has not only deployed its network along the park’s roadways, it has extended its services into the buildings. In CenterPoint, you’re guaranteed to have access to up to 10 Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) of network performance and services.

Overnight Delivery Service — Many companies rely on FedEx, UPS, and the U.S. Postal Service to get their products to their customers quickly. FedEx SmartPost is located inside CenterPoint East. In 2016, FedEx Ground opened a newly constructed 310,000 square foot distribution center less than five minutes from the park. FedEx Express and UPS are located in adjacent business parks. The U.S. Postal Service has three facilities within a 10-minute drive.

Access to Air Service — The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, which is seeing steady growth, is just three miles from the park’s entrance.

Access to Labor — There is a national labor shortage especially for skilled positions. CenterPoint is located just 10 minutes from Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. More people (320,000+) live within a 25- minute drive than any other business park in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Tenants in the park have a recruiting advantage over companies located in less accessible and more remote locations.

Access to Higher Education — There are 17 college and university campuses with more than 51,000 enrolled students within an hour’s drive of CenterPoint — 12 of which are within 25 minutes. This network of higher education provides an invaluable resource for employers and their employees, offering ample opportunity for co-ops, continuing education, customized job training, internships, and recruiting.

Supportive Partners — Numerous local, state, and federal agencies and organizations have worked with Mericle and CenterPoint’s tenants to form a very supportive public-private partnership to make CenterPoint a success. These include Luzerne County, the Pittston Area School Board, Jenkins Township, Pittston Township, the Greater Pittston Chamber of Commerce, Penn’s Northeast, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, Pennsylvania Career Link, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation, and the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Surface Mining.

Competition Losing its Edge — Northeastern Pennsylvania’s biggest competing locales for job-creating projects are the Lehigh Valley, Greater Harrisburg, and Northern and Central New Jersey. However, there has been so much industrial construction in those metro areas that they are running out of land. Also, the costs of real estate, taxes, and labor have risen significantly. Companies are now contacting Mericle saying they looked in those areas but decided they can no longer afford to locate there.

CenterPoint map
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_CENTERPOINT-MAP-JPEG.jpg.optimal.jpgCenterPoint map

An aerial photo taken in the fall of 2018 that shows CenterPoint West (bottom of pic) and CenterPoint East.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_CenterPoint-Aerial-Photo.jpg.optimal.jpgAn aerial photo taken in the fall of 2018 that shows CenterPoint West (bottom of pic) and CenterPoint East. Photo courtesy of Mericle Development

By Jim Cummings

VP Marketing/Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services