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
