Hanover Twp., Luzerne County, PA -
Amazon is on the move in Hanover Twp.
Months after announcing an ambitious plan to build a massive $60 million distribution center, the e-commerce and technology giant Amazon is making its mark in the South Valley.
Significant work has been done in recent weeks at the site, located near the border of Hanover Twp. and the Hanover section of the City of Nanticoke.
“The only update is everything is still on schedule,” Hanover Twp. Manager Sam Guesto said. “They are moving massive amounts of earth to reclaim the coal-scarred land.”
Guesto said Amazon contractors have been using dynamite to blast the area to prepare the site and he is regularly in contact with Nanticoke officials about the work.
Amazon recently purchased more than 125 acres along the border of Nanticoke for $24.75 million to construct one of its “last-mile” facilities where individual orders are prepared for deliveries.
Amazon’s “last mile” facilities, or delivery stations, are described as the final stop in a package’s journey to a customer and different from fulfillment centers where mass inventory is stored for bulk distribution.
The Hanover Twp. delivery station is expected to serve a 50-mile radius in the region. The facility will be the hub for a fleet of up to 900 delivery vans to make daily trips.
Amazon plans to build a 275,000-square-foot warehouse and two smaller 6,500-square-foot buildings that the vans drive through each time they enter and exit the property.
The Amazon campus will be located along Dziak Drive adjacent to a Safelite Auto Glass warehouse on a currently wooded ridge of mine-scarred land behind the Hanover Recreation Park on Front Street, which is the border of Hanover Twp. and the densely residential Hanover section of Nanticoke.
Amazon purchased seven parcels of land surrounding and behind the recreation park and a self-storage facility from its developer Missouri-based NorthPoint Development. NorthPoint has constructed most of the warehouses and distribution facilities in the South Valley over the last several years.
Just weeks earlier, NorthPoint purchased the land for $4.87 million from the nonprofit group Earth Conservancy, which reclaims abandoned coal mine land in the Wyoming Valley to be utilized once again.
Terry Ostrowski, president and CEO of Earth Conservancy, has said NorthPoint agreed to reclaim the severely mind-scared land and then build the property for Amazon, which explains the vast difference in the sale prices.
