A developer purchased a large land parcel in Scott Twp. to construct two warehouses.
Core5 at North Scranton LLC purchased five tracts off Route 107 near Interstate 81 totaling $7,010,540, according to deeds recorded last month with Lackawanna County.
The Atlanta, Georgia-based developer plans to build two warehouses — one 1,202,145 square feet, the other 695,304 square feet — along with access roads, parking and stormwater management facilities on 275 acres. It also involves changes to the existing wetlands, with a new water course that is approximately 1,049 feet, as well as new pipes, filling in the existing wetlands for the road, a new floodway crossing over the South Branch Tunkhannock Creek, according to its permit application with the Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District.
The land is currently zoned for industrial use but is mainly agricultural and forested, and has had minor manipulations from past farming activities, including modifications to improve drainage from some portions of the site, according to the application.
The township’s planning commission approved the plans late last year and the supervisors gave their approval earlier this year. Multiple residents voiced concerns about the project, including traffic that could be created from the warehouses, bridge maintenance and plans for emergency services, according to meeting minutes from the January township supervisors meeting.
Township Manager Carl Ferraro said in addition to the permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, the developer also received a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection and a highway occupancy permit from the state Department of Transportation for the site. The township has not issued a permit for the site but expects one will be issued soon, he said.
Ferraro said they drilled several wells on the site but no other construction has taken place. He doesn’t know who will occupy the warehouses but Core5 explained that based on their size, they are typically leased for distribution centers by large retailers like Amazon, Chewy, Walmart and Home Depot.
Efforts to reach Core5 for information on the plans was unsuccessful Friday. The developer describes itself on its website a “full-service real estate property company with expertise in development and acquisition of Class A inventory and build-to-suit industrial facilities,” with properties in the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Southeast portions of the United States, as well as California, Arizona and Texas. The website lists multiple properties in Pennsylvania as being under construction.
The supervisors rezoned part of the land from a rural district to industrial district in 2021 after its previous owner challenged the township’s zoning. “]
Davis Investment Group II LLC, which sold one of the parcels to Core5, acquired the land from Jermyn-based Scientific Living Inc. for $1 in lieu of mortgage foreclosure in January 2021. A company representative told supervisors in 2021 they had no specific plans for the site and requested the curative amendment to correct the zoning so it will follow their property lines.