Luzerne County may sell Hazleton commercial building and three-story Wilkes-Barre structure

Luzerne County is exploring the possible sale of two properties — a commercial/office building in downtown Hazleton and a three-story brick structure on West Union Street in Wilkes-Barre that previously housed community development.

Appraisals of both properties are on Thursday’s council Real Estate Committee meeting agenda for initial discussion. County council approval would be required at a future meeting.

In past sales of larger properties such as these, the county publicly sought proposals from interested buyers.

The property at 100 W. Broad St. in Hazleton, known as the Broad Street Business Exchange, is four stories with an attached wing. It was constructed in the 1930s and once housed the Deisroth department store.

The county accepted ownership of the property in 2009 from the nonprofit Alliance to Revitalize Center City Hazleton because the property was headed for a delinquent tax auction. The nonprofit owners owed the county’s community development office more than $1.8 million in loans, which were at risk of remaining unpaid if the property was sold to the highest tax sale bidder, officials said at the time.

Those community development loan remain as liens on the property, which means net proceeds from a sale would have to be applied toward the loans, officials said. The county administration had tried to sell the property in 2015 but did not receive any viable offers.

Tenants in the 44,480-square-foot structure include Luzerne County Community College, a coffee shop and a law firm.

In 2024, the county switched to in-house management of the property instead of paying an outside entity to oversee expenses, maintenance, and the collection of rent from tenants leasing space in the structure.

The June 3 appraisal performed by Nasser Real Estate and Appraisals Inc. in Scranton concluded the two-parcel property has a market value of $2.1 million.

Wilkes-Barre property

The county’s community development office vacated the property at 54 W. Union Street early this year, relocating to a county-leased property on North State Street in the city.

This move was prompted by plans to convert the West Union Street property to a temporary shelter for children removed from their homes due to alleged abuse and neglect. County Manager Romilda Crocamo said this week that county Children, Youth and Families has halted the temporary shelter plan to perform further assessment, which would allow the building to be sold.

The county owns the property because the Central Poor District of Luzerne County, a long defunct entity focused on the indigent, purchased the property at the corner of North Franklin and West Union streets in 1923, according to the deed.

An attached brick structure, the property is approximately 6,324 square feet and sits on 0.06 acre.

The July 1 appraisal, also performed by the Nasser firm, concluded the market value is $373,000.

Both appraisals are included in the 375-page committee agenda posted at luzernecounty.org.

The committee will meet at 6 p.m. in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Instructions for the remote attendance option will be posted in council’s online meeting section at luzernecounty.org.

Several purchases of vacant county-owned lots also are on the agenda, but Committee Chair LeeAnn McDermott said some of those sales could not proceed at this time because the county was unable to obtain deeds. Prospective buyers interested in properties without deeds would have to invest their own time and money performing a title search, she said.

The purchase offers for county-owned lots that do have deeds, according to agenda documentation:

• Shickshinny resident Leonard J. Dalmas offered to pay $500 each for three vacant lots on Route 11 in Hunlock Township with acreages of 0.544, 0.551 and 0.376.

Deeds indicate the county’s tax claim office had transferred ownership of the lots to the county in 1967, 1968 and 1985.

• Hazle Township resident Kevin Reph offered $500 for a 0.108-acre lot on Hill Street in the township. County tax claim had deeded the lot to the county in 1985.

• Luis Santana Peralta, of Plymouth, offered $1,000 for a 0.149-acre lot adjacent to McGinnis Street in the borough. As with the others, the county had assumed ownership of the parcel from tax claim in 1986.