Real Estate Round Up with John Cognetti – September 17, 2011
John Cognetti speaks on Real estate Round Up September 17, 2011
Posts Tagged ‘Scranton Commercial’
John Cognetti speaks on Real estate Round Up September 17, 2011
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011Mt. Pleasant frame sprouts at $5M project
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
Construction of new Mt. Pleasant Medical Center continues Teusday near Linden Street in SCranton
Workers on Tuesday started to install a steel frame for a 30,000-square-foot building in Scranton at the Mount Pleasant Corporate Center.
Two existing city medical businesses have signed on as tenants at the new building, under development by Beacon Summit at Scranton LLC, officials said Tuesday. The two tenants will be Physicians Health Alliance and Valley Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, both currently located on Adams Avenue.
About 50 jobs are expected during the life of the construction, which will result in a two-story building projected for occupancy by the early fall.
“We’re excited,” said Dan Siegel, a partner in Linden, N.J.-based Beacon. “With the building 50 percent leased and with the steel going up, we’re very hopeful we’re going to lease the balance of the building.”
The $5 million building project on the former brownfields site will generate local taxes, Mr. Siegel noted.
The Keystone Opportunity Zone status, which provided those in the zone with tax breaks, expired at the end of 2010.
The work marks a step forward in a long-standing project led by the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce to develop the 23-acre corporate park, a site off the McDade Expressway. Now, officials say they hope construction of the Beacon building with two expected tenants will spur additional development. “This building should be the catalyst, it should kick start the whole business park,” said Mike Detter, of Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate, the listing broker agent. “It’s a fantastic location, one of the gateways of the city.”
A little over 17 acres and four lots remain.
The chamber’s development arm – the Scranton-Lackawanna Industrial Building Co. – sold the 3.26-acre property to Beacon for $792,000 in 2009.
“It is good to see some activity there, hopefully it will spur interest and help us sell the other lots,” said Karl F. Pfeiffenberger, chamber project manager.
Meanwhile, Scranton City Council is considering legislation it tabled that would allow the city to accept a driveway and storm water basin – each for $1 – at the park.
Mr. Pfeiffenberger said construction is permitted to continue without transfer of the rights of way. But, he added having public infrastructure in place helps the chamber market the remaining lots. “Any business wants to be located off public infrastructure,” Mr. Pfeiffenberger said.
Valley Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery declined to comment, while efforts to reach Physicians Health Alliance were unsuccessful.
Contact the writer: jmrozinski@timesshamrock.com
Beacon Medical Real Estate buys lot in Mount Pleasant Corporate Center
Saturday, October 17th, 2009SCRANTON – Beacon Medical Real Estate has purchased a 3.26-acre lot in the Mount Pleasant Corporate Center for a two-story, 30,000-square-foot office building.
The Scranton-Lackawanna Industrial Building Co., which is the development arm of the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, sold the lot to the Linden, N.J.-based Beacon for $792,000.
The chamber argued unsuccessfully before the Scranton School Board during the summer to garner Keystone Opportunity Zone status for the business park, which would have given developers a 10-year real estate and state tax forbearance. The park is on Linden Street, the former site of the Keystone Block Co.
In the end, the draw of the Commonwealth Medical College outweighed the economic hit from losing the tax incentive, said Beacon partner Daniel Siegel.
“We had this property under contract, and we were extremely disappointed,” Mr. Siegel said. “But we think there is a need for a facility like this in Scranton. So we have to work harder.”
The medical school will prompt an expansion in the medical sector and demand for high-quality office space, Mr. Siegel said. The building will be all-steel construction, brick clad, with a porte-cochere, gurney-sized elevators, energy-efficient windows and mechanicals, and about 130 parking spaces. The groundbreaking will be in November, and the building will be ready for occupancy by the spring of 2011, Mr. Siegel said.
Beacon has been involved with the development of 1.5 million square feet of space in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Tenants can receive a share of equity in the property, becoming partial owners of the building.
Chamber President Austin Burke said he’s grateful Beacon stuck with the project, but said the lack of economic incentives to offer prospective employers will mean that it will take longer to fill the other four or five lots at the business park.
“We will be successful in bringing in new employers, but it will take longer,” he said.
Scranton Neighbors Say Good Riddance to Daron Northeast
Monday, November 10th, 2008After almost six years of living next to Daron Northeast, Tom Prendergast knows to place the china securely toward the back of the cupboard.
When Daron’s trucks rumble by, the vibrations are enough to rattle the porcelain cups and dishes right to the edge of the shelf.
For Evann Xanthis, it’s the dust. The chalky, pervasive dust that coats everything and jams air conditioners.
Harry Rothstein Participates in Ben Franklin Birthday Party
Monday, March 10th, 2008
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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Cognetti Helps Sell Dunmore Defense Plant Site
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008The site of a former manufacturing plant in Dunmore may turn into more housing for the community.
The former BAE Systems Specialty Defense System of PA Inc. building in Dunmore recently sold for $235,000 to 530 Sherwood Development LLC.
“Our plan is to develop residential townhouses for sale at the location,” said Jerry Ferrario, who is developing the property with brother Joe Ferrario and Mike Vacendak.
Snack Food Firm Expands Holdings
Thursday, February 14th, 2008MOOSIC, PA – A frozen snack foods manufacturer has acquired an adjacent building for $1.2 million for additional storage.
J&J Snack Foods Corp./MIA Products bought the 42,000-square-foot structure at 625 Rocky Glen Road for warehousing, MIA vice president and general manager T.J. Couzens said. MIA employs about 200 people.
The company will relocate storage operations from a leased site in Scranton to the Moosic building by April 1, Mr. Couzens said.
John Cognetti, president of Hinerfeld Commercial Realty, which represented seller Carl Touhey, of Albany, N.Y., said the structure was built in the early ’80s for Federal Express.
Its most recent tenants were DHL Express and Jack Williams Tire & Auto Service Centers.
-Courtesy of The Times-Tribune
Detter Leasing Keystone Commons Property
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008PLAINS TWP., PA – Keystone Commons should be more than an idea by next February.
Construction of the twin office buildings planned for high ground in the East Mountain Corporate Center is expected to begin by the end of this year, or sooner, said Chris Siegel, chief executive office of Ruckno Construction Co.
“That will be the tentative goal,” Siegel said Monday after he and Ernie McCabe, president of Ruckno’s commercial division, visited the site along Baltimore Drive.
Hinerfeld Leases Hickory Street Property
Friday, January 25th, 2008SCRANTON, PA – Keystone Community Resources, Inc. leased 13,000 s/f of space at 215 Hickory St. from DDRC Realty Company. The space consists of 8,000 s/f of showroom and workshop space, 3,000 s/f of warehouse space and 2,000 s/f of unfinished space.
John Cognetti, SIOR, CCIM, who represented DDRC in the lease negotiations, said that the space was a perfect fit for this particular tenant. Their need was for space for an adult day activities center for persons with mild and severe disabilities, a storage facility for equipment and supplies that would serve all their facilities and office space plus adequate parking and space for client transport. The space at one time was home to a Harley Davidson franchise and recently was a showroom and production space for vinyl products contractor.
“Seeing beyond what was there took the creative efforts fo the Keystone staff, their architect and the owners who are general contractors,” said Cognetti. The location within two blocks of an entrance/exit ramp to the Central Scranton Expressway provides convenient access to all of Lackawanna County. Also it is near Downtown Scranton and accessible to all parts of the City.
-Courtesy of Mid Atlantic Real Estate Journal
Scranton Engraving Faces Murky Future
Sunday, November 25th, 2007A one-time downtown Scranton firehouse and long-time home of an engraving facility has been sold, and its fate is uncertain.
Scranton Engraving, 233 Franklin Ave., was sold last week for $138,500 to Bill Rosado, owner of the Rosado Group and the Ford Dealership that flanks building.
The seller was Scranton Engraving owner Thomas G. McCormack, 82, who continued to run the business until a just few weeks ago.
Mr. McCormack purchased the business from Times-Shamrock Communications (which publishes BusinessWeekly) almost three decades ago. Scranton Engraving had been a wholly owned subsidiary whose largest customer was The Scranton Times, although the business did outside commercial jobs as well.
Because of technological upgrades, The Scranton Times production moved from hot-type to cold-type printing. Engraving was no longer needed, and the company sold the business to Mr. McCormack in June 1979.
With its handful of clients and six employees, the company moved to Franklin Avenue and continued to produce half tones, line negatives and other prepress services.
He was able to expanded the business. But the digital age soon caught up with company, as more printed material moved from a computer directly to a printer or offset plate. Prepress services became more obsolete.
In more recent years, Mr. McCormack kept the company going thanks plaque etching and boutique work. Shrinking volume and taxes took too great a toll.
“Business was good for a long time. We expanded, got more work and changed with what was happening, but we never got into computers,” Mr. McCormack said. “We did a good job, and we had loyal clients. But this sort of work isn’t needed as much, and we didn’t have the volume to continue.”
The property was listed by John Cognetti and Harry Rothstein, of Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate, in Scranton. The building was initially listed at $190,000, Mr. Cognetti said, but its marketability was limited by its “as-is” status, equipment included in the sale and limited parking.
Mr. Cognetti said Mr. Rosado wasn’t sure if he had a use for the building or would demolish it.
Property facts
Location: 233 Franklin Ave., Scranton.
Sale price: $138,500.
Land: 3,600 square feet.
Building: 4,900 square feet.
Old use: Home of Scranton Engraving.
New use: To be used or demolished by the surrounding car dealership.
- Courtesy of The Times-Tribune Business Weekly
