Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate, Scranton, PA

The expansive property at 300 Laird St. offers flexibility, convenience and quality for a business needing a warehouse and offices. Alternatively, either of the two buildings is available for lease separately.

The 53,000-square-foot warehouse, with four loading docks and another overhead door at ground level, is an alternative to sharing space in a gigantic distribution center. Built of concrete block with a steel frame, it has an 1,856 square feet of office space inside.

Built as the J.S. Raub shoe store distribution facility, “it’s a well-constructed building,” with “nice open space,” said Harry Rothstein of Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate. “This is standalone which is desirable in certain cases.”

The fully sprinklered warehouse is zoned for industrial use as well. It’s perfect for “anybody that needs a ‘clean’ building,” Rothstein said, including for food-grade storage.

A separate office building affords 7,900 square feet of space. It has a large open area, 11 private offices and one two-room executive suite, a conference room, two bathrooms and a telecom/storage room. There are 34 parking spaces dedicated to the office building and more than 100 between the two buildings.

The floors are carpeted, and there are movable sheetrock partitions and fiber-optic cable throughout.

Rothstein said both buildings are in excellent condition and ready for occupancy. Perhaps the best feature is the location, just off Route 315 and about one mile from the Cross-Valley Expressway, which provides easy access to Interstate 81 and the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The warehouse is available $3.50 per square foot, plus common-area maintenance and utilities. The fully finished office is $14.50 per square foot plus utilities and CAM.

- Courtesy of The Times Leader

Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate announced the sale of 10 Jaycee Drive in the Valmont Industrial Park in West Hazleton, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania to MBC Hazleton, LP. for $1,100,000. Built in the 1960s with additions in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the 199,000 square foot building on ten acres formerly was recently used for the processing of foam rubber.

The building had been unoccupied for a few years. The new owners plan renovations for use as a multi tenant warehouse/distribution facility. John T. Cognetti, SIOR of Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate located in Scranton, has represented MBC in other real estate projects in Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties and said that MBC has had great success in buying, renovating and leasing older industrial properties similar to this. GFC-Foam was represented by John Van Buskirk, SIOR of NAI/CIR of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

- Courtesy of The Times-Tribune

John T. Cognetti, SIOR of Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate announced the leasing of 35,000 square feet of Class A office space at Glenmaura Plaza in the Glenmaura Corporate Center. The Corporate Center is located at the Montage Road exit of I-81 between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Glenmaura Plaza consists of three buildings totaling approximately 185,000 square feet.

CPG International Inc leased 22,000, the entire second floor, of Building 52. CPG will consolidate several of their office functions at this location to become their corporate headquarters. Deluxe Digital Studios will expand absorbing 10, 100 square feet on the first floor. Also on the first floor Lehigh Physicians Group will occupy 3,500 square feet.

Mr. Cognetti represented the owners of the Plaza, Tier II Properties, L.P. The Physicians Group was represented by Mike Tamarelli of the Markward Group. Mr. Cognetti said that with these leases the Plaza is 92% occupied with serious interest in the remaining suites. He attributes this increase in demand to the fact that Glenmaura has been recognized as the place to be for regional and national office tenants looking for a presence in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Glenmaura is a 1000 acres planned unit development. Since its inception, it has grown to become the center of Northeastern Pennsylvania for living, working and play. The combination of ski slopes, a Triple A baseball stadium (the home to the Yankees triple A team), a nationally rated golf course, exceptional residential communities, the Corporate Center, and the soon to open lifestyle center will continue to draw major office tenants to the area. Mr. Cognetti said.

- Courtesy of The Times-Tribune

The pending closing of a longtime manufacturing plant that will shifts jobs elsewhere spells a loss of tax revenue for the cash-strapped borough of Dunmore.

Specialty Defense Systems is scaling back operations at its plant at 530 Sherwood Ave. and will shut the 65,000-square-foot facility within months, general manager Bill Trainor said.

“We anticipate moving out of the building probably by the end of October,” he said.

Specialty Defense, which produces military helmets and gear including ballistic vests, opened a manufacturing facility in March at a 100,000-square-foot building in Jessup at the Valley View Business Park. The company, which has had a presence in Dunmore since 1969, was acquired by Armor Holdings Inc., a Jacksonville, Fla.-based defense contractor, for $92 million in 2004.

About 100 company employees continue to manufacture helmets at the Dunmore plant, Mr. Trainor said, and another 150 sew military field equipment items and make helmets at the Jessup site. Peak employment at the Dunmore plant was about 180 people, he said, and the employees and plant equipment will be relocated to the Jessup facility.

Dunmore officials lamented the job loss and the negative effect the move will have on borough finances.

Dunmore’s current debt is about $15.3 million.

“The loss . . . of $19,000 in (Emergency Municipal Tax) along with ancillary spending in Dunmore will have a negative impact on economic conditions in the borough,” borough manager Joe Loftus said.

The company is closing the plant, a former glove-manufacturing facility, because it needed a larger, more-efficient location, Mr. Trainor said.

“It’s a very old building that wasn’t very efficiently laid out for manufacturing,” he said. “It’s not in a good location. Basically, we outgrew it and outlived it.”

The 1.25-acre property, which is surrounded by a residential area, has been for sale for several months and the company is asking $499,000 for the five-building complex, said John Cognetti, president of Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate, which is handling the sale.

Specialty originally manufactured plastic gift items for sports teams.

It converted exclusively to military equipment manufacturing in 1978.

- Courtesy of The Times-Tribune

SCRANTON AND WILKES-BARRE, PA. — Hinerfeld Realty Co. has handled two property dispositions. In the first deal, Robert Rossi & Co. sold 811 S. Washington Ave. in Scranton to Minnetonka, Minn.-based Quality Residences for $492,500. The property consists of two buildings on a corner lot. Sherwin-Williams occupies 12,000 square feet of one of the buildings for its retail store and warehouse. A local tenant occupies the other 2,300-square-foot warehouse. John Cognetti brokered the transaction.

In the second deal, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Bennett of Northampton, Pa., bought 125 N. Wilkes-Barre Blvd. in Wilkes-Barre from Con Ed Realty Co. The property, which comprises two buildings on 3.5 acres, sold for $1.3 million. Smith’s Aerospace Components occupies 5,664 square feet of the 27,800-square-foot main building. Allied Products occupies the entire 1,925-square-foot garage-type building behind the main structure. Cognetti and Mike Detter negotiated this transaction.

811 South Washington Avenue Scranton	125 North Wilkes-Barre Blvd. Wilkes-Barre