Northeastern Pennsylvania's Industrial Market Outlook (Q4 '25 - Q1 '26) - Focus on I-81 & I-476 Corridor

The National Backdrop

Nationally, the industrial sector entered the period still absorbing the space delivered during the 2021 to 2023 construction boom. Cushman & Wakefield put U.S. vacancy at (7.1%) in the fourth quarter of 2025, with 54.5 million square feet of net absorption and an average asking rent of ($10.18) per square foot.

By the first quarter of 2026 vacancy had eased to (7.0%). New completions fell (27%) year over year to 54 million square feet, the lowest quarterly total since mid-2017, while net absorption of roughly 40 million square feet was up (52%) year over year and the average asking rent reached ($10.20). By the end of the period the market was working through its oversupply rather than adding to it.

Northeastern Pennsylvania, Quarter by Quarter

Cushman & Wakefield tracks Northeastern Pennsylvania as one of three submarkets in its Pennsylvania I-81 and I-78 corridor report, about 87 million square feet of industrial space. In the fourth quarter of 2025 NEPA had the lowest vacancy of the three at (4.8%), a drop of 70 basis points in the quarter, and absorbed 717,499 square feet. Cushman & Wakefield reported that the two largest leases of the quarter put NEPA first in the corridor for both leasing activity and net absorption.

The first quarter of 2026 gave some of that back. Vacancy rose to (6.4%), and Cushman & Wakefield measured net absorption at negative 1.05 million square feet. Lee & Associates of Eastern Pennsylvania, which draws the submarket on its own boundaries, attributed the rise in NEPA vacancy to nearly 1.8 million square feet of new speculative space delivering vacant, and reported that the submarket still posted positive absorption. The two firms disagree on the sign of the quarter's absorption. They agree that vacancy rose and that new supply arriving ahead of tenants, not tenants leaving, is the reason. Another 3.9 million square feet was still under construction at the end of March.

How NEPA Compares Along the Corridor

Across the broader six-submarket Eastern Pennsylvania region, Lee & Associates reported vacancy of (8.66%) at the end of 2025 with 20.7 million square feet under construction, and (8.44%) at the end of the first quarter of 2026 with about 18.1 million square feet under construction and 3.27 million square feet of positive net absorption. The firm named Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania as the submarkets where new construction starts were concentrated in the fourth quarter, even as others pulled back.

The Cost Advantage

The case for Pittston and the broader NEPA submarket is still cost. Warehouse asking rent in NEPA averaged ($7.71) per square foot in the first quarter of 2026. For the same quarter, Cushman & Wakefield's national figures put overall asking rent at ($12.86) in Philadelphia and ($17.44) in Northern New Jersey. On a 200,000 square foot building, the gap to Northern New Jersey is close to ($2 million) a year in rent. That is the main reason 3PLs, food and beverage producers and e-commerce tenants priced out of the Philadelphia and New York metro markets keep moving up the I-81 and I-78 corridors.

The Philadelphia and New Jersey figures are overall asking rents and the NEPA figure is warehouse and distribution space only, so read the comparison as directional rather than exact.

Workforce

Luzerne County's unemployment rate was (5.1%) in March 2026, against a national rate of (4.3%), both before seasonal adjustment. The more telling number for industrial demand is the county's employment mix. Transportation and warehousing accounted for (13.8%) of county jobs in 2025, a location quotient of 2.39, which means the sector employs county residents at more than double the statewide rate. Manufacturing added another (12.2%), a location quotient of 1.32.

Three of the county's ten largest employers in the first quarter of 2026, Amazon.com Services, the TJ Maxx Distribution Center and Chewy, run large distribution or fulfillment operations. Online job postings in the county rose (37.2%) year over year in December 2025, nearly double the statewide increase of (19.4%), a forward signal of continued hiring from the logistics and manufacturing base.

Top Employers, Luzerne County

Ranked by employment in the first quarter of 2026, from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry county profile. Exact headcounts are not published at the employer level.

Local Spotlight, CenterPoint Commerce and Trade Park

The dominant industrial address in the Pittston market is CenterPoint Commerce and Trade Park, developed in phases by Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services across Pittston Township and Jenkins Township. The park sits off I-81 Exit 175 and I-476 Exit 115, and many of its buildings carry LERTA real estate tax abatements on improvements, with terms that vary by building. Harrington Process Solutions opened a distribution center here in March 2026.

Lease Activity During the Period, Greater Pittston

FulfillPlus, a national 3PL with centers in Houston and Fremont, opened its third U.S. fulfillment center in Mid Valley Industrial Park in Olyphant, just north of the Pittston submarket, and expects to hire 25 to 40 people initially. Harrington Process Solutions, a Chino, California fluid-handling distributor, opened a distribution center of just over 100,000 square feet in CenterPoint East in March 2026, which the company announced as its 91st.

Smaller Deals Outside the Major Parks

Not every deal in this submarket runs through a 400,000 square foot Mericle building. Owner-user purchases, small expansions and adaptive reuse make up a meaningful share of NEPA industrial activity, and they tend to be financed through the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority (PIDA) and the NEPA Alliance rather than tracked by the major brokerage research platforms.

Construction and Investment Activity

Arm's-length building sales in the immediate Pittston submarket remain thin. Most Class A product here is built and held long term by private developers, chiefly Mericle, rather than traded. Cushman & Wakefield did record one large NEPA trade in the fourth quarter of 2025, 1300 Corporate Way, about 1 million square feet at ($133) per square foot, or ($133 million). Quarter to quarter, though, the submarket does not produce a comp set deep enough to publish a reliable price per square foot or cap rate.

Methodology and Sources

This report compiles published industry, government and trade press sources rather than a single proprietary database, and every figure and transaction is from the fourth quarter of 2025 or the first quarter of 2026. Submarket vacancy, absorption, construction and rent figures come from Cushman & Wakefield's Pennsylvania I-81 and I-78 industrial MarketBeat. Regional figures and the explanation of first-quarter supply come from Lee & Associates of Eastern Pennsylvania, whose NEPA boundaries differ from Cushman & Wakefield's, which is why the two do not agree on first-quarter absorption. National benchmarks come from Cushman & Wakefield's U.S. Industrial MarketBeat. Transaction detail comes from developer and government announcements.

• Cushman & Wakefield, PA I-81 / I-78 Industrial MarketBeat, Q4 2025 and Q1 2026
• Cushman & Wakefield, U.S. Industrial MarketBeat, Q4 2025 and Q1 2026
• Lee & Associates of Eastern Pennsylvania, Q4 2025 and Q1 2026 Industrial Market Report releases
• Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Center for Workforce Information and Analysis, Luzerne County Profile (August 2026 edition for 2025 industry shares and first-quarter 2026 top employers, February 2026 edition for December 2025 job postings)
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics and national unemployment rate, not seasonally adjusted, March 2026, via FRED
• Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services, announcements on CrossRoads East (Oct and Nov 2025), FulfillPlus (Feb 2026) and Harrington Process Solutions (Mar 2026), and CenterPoint property listings