Olyphant, Lackawanna County, PA -
Amazon is expanding its presence in the Midvalley.
The e-commerce giant plans to open a 1 Million SF warehouse at 1300 Corporate Way in Olyphant later this year, just a few miles from its existing 1 Million SF warehouse in the Valley View Business Park in Jessup, which shipped its first order in September 2021.
The new facility is slated to launch in time for the holiday season, and Amazon anticipates hiring several hundred people to staff it, Amazon spokeswoman Smitha Rao said in an email.
Hourly pay for Amazon employees across its customer fulfillment and transportation network currently ranges from $17 to $28 per hour, with the average pay for customer fulfillment and operations roles being $20.50-plus an hour - a more than 50% increase over five years, Rao said. She touted the new facility as providing career advancement opportunities; anytime access to earned pay; health, vision and dental insurance from the first day on the job; a 401(k) plan with a company match; and up to 20 weeks of paid pregnancy/parental leave for birth parents with six weeks for eligible supporting parents, among other offerings.
The upcoming warehouse is the most recent development in a surge of warehousing and industry to target the Midvalley and Upvalley, with officials often pointing to the region’s close proximity to major interstates as a key selling point.
Online pet-product supplier Chewy.com opened a 700,000 SF warehouse in the Valley View Business Park in Archbald in 2020; Canpack Group's massive Olyphant aluminum can production facility at 1400 E. Lackawanna Ave. became fully operational in 2022; pet food firm Blue Buffalo opened a 750,000 SF warehouse along Route 247 in Jessup in recent years; the upcoming Triboro Industrial Park around Route 247, Marshwood Road and the Casey Highway in Olyphant advertises more than 4.5 million SF across four warehouses; and developers plan to build additional sprawling warehouses on mine-scarred land in Archbald, Mayfield and Carbondale Twp. along Meredith Street and the Casey Highway. A developer also bought nearly 90 acres in Jessup and Archbald earlier this year for 765,000 SF of industrial facilities.
This likely won't be Amazon's last warehouse in Northeastern Pennsylvania, said Penn's Northeast President and CEO John Augustine. Penn's Northeast is a collective aiming to promote new investments, jobs and business opportunities by promoting Northeast Pennsylvania.
"That location has not typically seen the amount of warehouse-distribution activity like the Hazleton area has," Augustine said, calling it a relatively new frontier in recent years.
Augustine believes Lackawanna County's closer proximity to the New England market contributes to the development. The region is one day's drive from a third of the United States population and half of Canada's, he said.
To attract developers, municipalities often grant 10-year tax breaks through the state’s Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance Act. LERTAs are intended to incentivize development on deteriorated land by lowering the property taxes a developer has to pay on improvements to the property.
Olyphant previously approved a 10-year LERTA where Amazon will only pay 5% of property taxes on improvements in year one, increasing by 5% annually through the 10th year. When the LERTA ends, Amazon will pay 100% of its property taxes.
