Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate, Scranton, PA

PLAINS TWP. – Not only is 2008 the University of Pennsylvania Alumni Club of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s 100th anniversary, making it the university’s oldest club in the world, but it also marks the 302nd birthday of Benjamin Franklin – a celebration the group holds yearly.

Although Franklin’s birthday was actually in January, the alumni group met Sunday at the East Mountain Inn to commemorate the day. Franklin is the founder of the university.

Each year, the alumni group picks a fun topic to celebrate. This year, the group chose “Ben and Me,” a book written by Robert Lawson in 1939, which tells a fictitious tale of how a mouse named Amos is really the one to be credited with all of Franklin’s great inventions.
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Sundance Vacations will soon take a short trip to its new home near the Wachovia Arena.

The company will move from its Kidder Street offices to the former state Department of Labor and Industry building on Highland Park Boulevard and rename the property The Arena Commons.

Dowd Holdings L.P. purchased the property from the Girard Estate last week for $3.25 million.

“This new building marks the latest phase in a significant investment for Sundance Vacations,” said John Dowd, company president.

Approximately $1 million will be invested in renovations. Sundance Vacations will move its corporate office into the building and will establish a new sales office there as well. The remaining 30,000 square feet will be leased.

The move will place Sundance Vacations in the “newest and most rapidly growing commercial thoroughfare in Northeastern Pennsylvania,” the company said in a press release.

The company showed an interest in the property months ago when the listing started to draw attention from prospective buyers, said Mike Detter, an associate of Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate in Scranton.

The property was on the market for approximately a year and a half. In January it was listed at $4.2 million.

“After being quiet for a while we had a lot of interest in the spring and multiple offers in the summer,” he said. “Timing’s everything in real estate.”

The property’s location and the building’s size were big selling points. The 47,000-square-foot, one-story structure is situated on the 4.66-acre site near the arena.

The building was relatively new, constructed in 1992 and had been previously home to the Labor and Industry Department’s Bureau of Disability Determination. The tenant relocated to downtown Wilkes-Barre in 2005.

- Courtesy of The Times Leader

The McDonough property in Dunmore was recently sold.

The corner site at West Drinker St. and Tripp Avenue was improved with two single family homes and a four unit apartment building.

The purchasers, Quad Holdings, LLC have begun adapting the imposing 4,000 s/f three-story brick home at the corner of West Drinker and Tripp Avenue into offices for their business use.

John Cognetti, SIOR, CCIM of Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate represented the seller, the estate of Marie McDonough, in the sale.

Cognetti said that the property attracted interested parties because of the easy access to the interstate system and its being part of the Dunmore business area. He noted that the renovated property will be an attractive gateway to the business district from the west bridging the borough residential and the commercial areas.

The sale price was $295,000.

- Courtesy of NJPA Real Estate Journal

Recently the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities (PLCM) held their 108th Annual Convention in Scranton. Christopher A. Doherty, Mayor of Scranton, hosted the event.

The various sessions being offered focused on topics from leadership to labor law. One session entitled THE ELECTRIFYING SUCCESS OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION IN SCRANTON, focused on the historic preservation effort begun in Scranton over thirty years ago by the Architectural Heritage Association. Among the panel members were John T. Cognetti, SIOR, CCIM and president of Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate. Mr. Cognetti was a founding member of the Association and has served as its president in 1977.

The session was broadcast on PCN, the Pennsylvania Cable Network TV station.

Mike Detter recently graduated from the Leadership Lackawanna class of 2006-2007. Leadership Lackawanna is a community education program founded in 1982 by private and public sector officials and The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce. The goal of the program is to create a motivated corps of volunteers that social service and civic groups could draw from for advice and guidance.

Leadership Lackawanna is structured to provide an in-depth analysis of key issues facing Lackawanna County. Trends and data on community development, economic development, government, health care, law, education, quality of life, labor/management relations, and media are the focus of this ten-month program. The individuals who complete this program are making positive contributions to both the economy and quality of life in our community.

As a prerequisite for graduation each class completes a service project. Mike and his group chose to focus on the Humane Society of Lackawanna County. The group created a book entitled Gimme Shelter featuring many of the animals that were housed at the Humane Society . The overall goal of the project was to raise awareness of pet adoption. In addition to the photography and layout the group solicited funds, made public appearances and secured billboard advertising to promote the book. Gimme Shelter was sold to the public and all proceeds were donated to the Humane Society of Lackawanna County.

A growing mental health provider with offices in Kingston and Dunmore will consolidate into a new facility in Moosic, having purchased a building on Montage Mountain Road for $1.4 million.

The psychiatric practice of Matthew Berger, M.D., and Danilo DeSoto, M.D., plans to invest another $800,000 into the former State Farm Insurance building to remodel and expand the existing 15,000-square-foot, one-story structure.

The practice, which includes 15 clinicians and 40 other workers, will move into the building in the fall, after initial renovations. Easy to find and easy to get to, the building was a good choice for the practice, Dr. Berger said.

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Like an off Broadway play that finally makes it big time, Northeastern Pennsylvania is on stage.

Those people and businesses moving into the region prior to 2000 could be considered like early adapters who are usually the first to try anything new. The slow trickle developed into a robust stream of real estate users. It seems like overnight people came for second homes and the price of lakefront cottages took off. Farms, second homes followed.

Soon real estate investments followed. The biggest turnover occurred in retail investments. The regional malls and most of the neighborhood shopping centers have changed ownership.

A tremendous increase in the building of every retail type has occurred, are planned or are under construction. Investors are calling us every day looking for these type of properties to buy or to develop new ones.

The same is true of industrial real estate. The Interstate 81 corridor is considered the distribution and logistics corridor for the Northeast. That hastened sale, lease and construction activity in Northeastern Pennsylvania since 2000.

New to the rush has been the office market. Much slower from the start, office sales and leasing just increased over the last year. Many buy for their businesses and a significant number buy for investment. Leasing activity has accelerated in the last eight months with demand from both regional and national firms.

Location, location, location. We are at the edge of the western migration from New York and New Jersey. The recession of 2000 fueled interest in real estate investment. Northeastern Pennsylvania real estate looked like a bargain when compared to metropolitan markets. The cost of living was lower here, and the beginning of the boomer retirement wave increased the local demand for homes.

What happens next? Usually when investors buy anticipating a higher yield they will raise rents. You see this in everything from the little cottage at the lake you used to rent for a few weeks or the apartment in a two-family home to the office space or the storefront in the local shopping center.

Where are we going? Like it or not, the region is changing. What needs to be done for the future is commitment. A renewed focus on creating a higher level of jobs to bring home the children and grandchildren.

That involves a focus on education from pre-school through high school. The model is Raleigh, N.C., that bore the research triangle.

One difference between here and there is that they have one school district for all of Wake County, our counties have several school districts.

We also need to work on our infrastructure.

Why not a commuter line from Scranton, Glenmaura, and the airport, East Mountain Business Park, the Arena, downtown Wilkes-Barre and Pittston? Why not redo the interchanges in Dupont and Clarks Summit and make that part of turnpike toll-free and a bypass.

Why not get Luzerne County with Pike, Wayne and Wyoming to join the transportation authority recently created between Monroe and Lackawanna counties and push for regional initiatives from freight and passenger rail to highways, the airport and bus transportation.

Our region has a history of taking on initiatives. Our business parks, Montage, the stadium and the arena show we can do it.

-John Cognetti

- Courtesy of The Times-Tribune

A food service company known for delivering to businesses and restaurants is looking for walk-in customers as it opens two retail stores in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Maines Paper & Food Service Inc. will open stores in the fall at the former Scranton Fabric Center, at Oak Street and Keyser Avenue, and in a former industrial site at Rutter Avenue in Forty Fort.

Selling bulk and fresh food items, janitorial supplies and paper products to institutional customers, restaurants and the general public, Maines will compete with retail stores such as Keyco Distributors Inc., Schiff’s Cash & Carry and, to a lesser extent, Sam’s Club.

The Conklin, N.Y.-based company calls the stores MaineSource and plans to open 20 retail stores in the next five years. Maines Vice President Steve Ross said the stores primarily will serve existing Maines customers between deliveries who need food or supplies immediately, or don’t meet the $500 cutoff for delivery.

“The last thing we want is to have our existing customers go somewhere else,” Mr. Ross said. “This is another level of service, a natural extension of what we already do.”

In all, the store will stock about 6,000 items, but customers can order from 29,000 items offered by Maines for next-day pickup at the store.

The stores will have walk-in coolers for fresh produce, dairy and meats, and a freezer section.

Maines wanted about 10,000 square feet of space in both the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre areas, said Michael Detter of Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate in Scranton, who helped Maines find the sites and negotiate the leases.

The Forty Fort site at 900 Rutter Ave. is 11,000 square feet and had been a meat packing facility, cigar factory and a print shop. The building is owned by Wilkes-Barre businessman David Koral. The MaineSource store is scheduled to open in early October.

The Scranton storefront had been vacant since 2002, when Scranton Fabric Center closed after six years at the plaza owned by Millett Real Estate, Clarks Summit. That store is expected to open in late September. Each store will employ about 10 people, Mr. Ross said.

Maines Paper & Food Service is a privately held, family-owned company with annual revenue in excess of $1.6 billion. Two of its largest customers are Burger King and Wendy’s restaurant chains.

- Courtesy of The Times-Tribune