The National Backdrop
Nationally, the first half of 2026 was the market working off the last of the 2021 to 2023 construction boom. Cushman & Wakefield put U.S. industrial vacancy at (7.0%) in the first quarter, when new completions fell (27%) year over year to 54 million square feet, the lowest quarterly total since mid-2017, and net absorption of roughly 40 million square feet was up (52%) year over year.
The second quarter was stronger. Vacancy fell to (6.9%), net absorption climbed (21%) from the first quarter to 62.1 million square feet, and first-half absorption reached 113.6 million square feet. The average asking rent rose to ($10.32) per square foot, up (2.9%) year over year, with warehouse and distribution space at ($10.03). The Northeast was the only U.S. region where vacancy ticked up in the second quarter, by 10 basis points.
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 89 million square feet of industrial space by the end of June. The half was defined by new supply. NEPA delivered about 2.3 million square feet of new space in the first six months of 2026, including NFI's 1.1 million square foot Hazleton Creek Commerce Center Building 4, and vacancy rose from (6.4%) in the first quarter to (7.1%) in the second.
Demand held up better than the vacancy rate suggests. After negative absorption of 1.05 million square feet in the first quarter, NEPA absorbed 1.14 million square feet in the second, so the half finished slightly positive at 86,128 square feet. Lee & Associates of Eastern Pennsylvania, which draws the submarket on its own boundaries, reported that NEPA vacancy edged higher in the first quarter as nearly 1.8 million square feet of speculative space delivered vacant, though the market still posted positive absorption, and that in the second quarter NEPA posted improvements across nearly every major market indicator. Construction under way fell from 3.9 million square feet at the end of March to 2.3 million at the end of June as buildings delivered.
| NEPA Measure | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Vacancy | 6.4% | 7.1% |
| Net Absorption | -1,052,941 SF | +1,139,069 SF |
| Under Construction | 3.90M SF | 2.29M SF |
| Completions, Year to Date | 418,683 SF | 2,338,123 SF |
| Warehouse Asking Rent | $7.71 / SF | $7.79 / SF |
| Inventory | 87.3M SF | 89.2M SF |
How NEPA Compares Along the Corridor
| Submarket | Vacancy, Q2 2026 | Net Absorption, Q2 2026 | Warehouse Asking Rent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northeastern PA | 7.1% | +1,139,069 SF | $7.79 / SF |
| Lehigh Valley | 8.3% | +93,538 SF | $11.87 / SF |
| Central PA | 7.3% | +1,077,357 SF | $8.97 / SF |
NEPA absorbed more space in the second quarter than either the Lehigh Valley or Central Pennsylvania, and at ($7.79) per square foot its warehouse space remained the least expensive of the three. Across the broader six-submarket Eastern Pennsylvania region, Lee & Associates reported vacancy of (8.44%) at the end of March and (8.24%) at the end of June, with more than 4.5 million square feet of positive net absorption and 10.3 million square feet of leasing in the second quarter, and about 17.8 million square feet under construction.
The Cost Advantage
The case for Pittston and the broader NEPA submarket is still cost. Comparing warehouse space with warehouse space in the second quarter of 2026, Cushman & Wakefield put asking rent at ($7.79) per square foot in NEPA, ($12.97) in Philadelphia and ($18.08) in Northern New Jersey. On a 200,000 square foot building, the gap to Northern New Jersey is more than ($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.
Workforce
Luzerne County's unemployment rate was (5.0%) in June 2026, against a national rate of (4.4%), both before seasonal adjustment. 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.
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.
| Rank | Employer | Primary Sector |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center | Health Care |
| 2 | Federal Government | Public Administration |
| 3 | Amazon.com Services LLC | Transportation & Warehousing |
| 4 | State Government | Public Administration |
| 5 | Hazleton Area School District | Education |
| 6 | TJ Maxx Distribution Center | Transportation & Warehousing |
| 7 | Wal-Mart Associates Inc. | Retail / Distribution |
| 8 | Chewy Inc. | Transportation & Warehousing |
| 9 | Luzerne County | Public Administration |
| 10 | Geisinger Clinic | Health Care |
Activity During the Period
| Company | Location | Detail | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| FulfillPlus (3PL Fulfillment) | 1159 Mid Valley Drive, Mid Valley Industrial Park, Olyphant (Lackawanna Co.) | Flex Building Lease, 25 to 40 Initial Hires | Feb 2026 |
| Monster Energy | 145 Market Way, Mount Pocono (Monroe Co.) | 749,736 SF New Lease | Q1 2026 |
| Harrington Process Solutions | 515 Research Drive, CenterPoint East, Pittston Twp. | 100,000+ SF Distribution Center Opened | Mar 2026 |
| Premier Brands of America | 45 Commerce Drive, Scott Twp. (Lackawanna Co.) | $15M Plant, 58 Jobs Over Three Years | Apr 2026 |
| Forbo Flooring | 18 Maplewood Drive, Humboldt Industrial Park, Hazleton | Flotex Plant Opened, About 90 Employees | May 2026 |
| NFI | Hazleton Creek Commerce Center, Building 4, Hazleton | 1,100,000 SF Delivered | First Half 2026 |
Harrington, a Chino, California fluid-handling distributor, opened in CenterPoint Commerce and Trade Park East, the Mericle-developed park off I-81 Exit 175 and I-476 Exit 115, in a building leased just over 100,000 square feet and developed on speculation. Premier Brands of America's plant, in the former Scranton Times-Tribune printing facility, came with a ($3.6 million) Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority loan, a ($245,700) Pennsylvania First grant and a ($64,300) WEDnetPA grant. Monster Energy's lease sits in the Poconos, inside Cushman & Wakefield's NEPA submarket but outside Luzerne and Lackawanna counties.
Cushman & Wakefield's key sales tables listed no Northeastern Pennsylvania building sales in either quarter. Most Class A product here is built and held long term by private developers rather than traded, so the submarket does not produce a comp set deep enough to publish a reliable price per square foot or cap rate for the half.
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 first or second quarter of 2026. Submarket vacancy, absorption, completions, construction and rent figures come from Cushman & Wakefield's Pennsylvania I-81 and I-78 industrial MarketBeat, whose second-quarter figures are marked preliminary. Regional figures and the qualitative NEPA findings 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 and, for Forbo Flooring, local press.
- Cushman & Wakefield, PA I-81 / I-78 Industrial MarketBeat, Q1 2026 and Q2 2026 (Q2 preliminary)
- Cushman & Wakefield, U.S. Industrial MarketBeat, Q1 2026 and Q2 2026
- Lee & Associates of Eastern Pennsylvania, Q1 2026 and Q2 2026 Industrial Market Report releases
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics and national unemployment rate, not seasonally adjusted, June 2026, via FRED
- Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Center for Workforce Information and Analysis, Luzerne County Profile, top employers for the first quarter of 2026
- Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services, announcements on FulfillPlus (Feb 2026) and Harrington Process Solutions (Mar 2026)
- Office of the Governor of Pennsylvania, Premier Brands of America announcement (Apr 8, 2026)
- Standard-Speaker, via Penn's Northeast, Forbo Flooring grand opening (May 2026)
Talk to a Local Broker Who Knows This Market
Jonathan J. Nelson Real Estate works the Greater Pittston and NEPA market every day, residential, commercial, industrial, and land. If you are buying, selling, or investing, let's talk.
Contact Jonathan J. Nelson Real Estate
