A distribution center featuring an approximately 739,000-square-foot building is proposed for Route 940 in eastern Kidder Township.

Property owner Rick Sutliff presented his project to the Weatherly Area School Board earlier this month. He asked for a tax freeze to help with development.

The project would be on approximately 117 acres along Route 940 from the PPL Electric station to the top of the small hill overlooking the Tobyhanna Creek.

The 739,000-square-foot building would be built parallel to the state road, with truck parking on the north and south sides, employee parking for up to 250 employees, and a large outer lot for more trucks.

Once the structure is completed, the area would be nicely landscaped.

Sutliff, of Richard Henry and Sons Construction of Pocono Pines, explained that the currently undeveloped property now generates $11,991 each year in taxes to the district.

Once sold and improved, the property would generate $163,935 a year in annual taxes. The district will also receive a transfer tax payment.

Sutliff is asking for is Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance, a LERTA, under a PA program to encourage economic development. The request is that under this LERTA, for taxes remain at $163,935 for five years so a developer can get the building erected and leased.

After five years, taxes on the building would then kick-in, rising 20% each year to 100% valuation after in year 10 and thereafter – reaching about $1,267,769 in annual taxes.

This would make the building one of the Weatherly Area School District’s largest taxpayers.

Weatherly Area School Board’s approving the LERTA will allow a developer to build the building sooner, and ideally, to get a tenant sooner.

With the LERTA in place, Sutliff explained a developer is likely to be interested in erecting the building on speculation, ideally beginning to build later in 2021 once all the permits are in place.

Given the building’s location, it is hoped that a lease can be in place by the time the construction is complete. It is also possible the building will take a year or two to become occupied, making the LERTA all that much more important.

No decision was made by the board, but the prospect of increased tax revenues soon, with more down the road, was appealing to most of the members.

Adding to the appeal would be the jobs the project would bring.

Over the past several years, the Weatherly Area School Board and Kidder Township Supervisors have approved, and have recently renewed, a Keystone Opportunity Zone tax reduction for a Blue Ridge Real Estate company-owned property in north-central Kidder on Route 940 just east of the former High Elevations restaurant. A large warehouse is proposed for there.

A second warehouse is possible on an adjacent site once the first is completed and rented. The KOEZ program reduces local and township taxes for seven to ten years, similar to the LERTA but also has state tax reductions and benefits for the company locating into the zone.