In Luzerne County in northeastern Pennsylvania, former mine land is well on the way to becoming a hub of e-commerce. Hanover 9 is one of several projects in the county that involve reclaiming old mining sites and converting them to commercial and industrial use. It is a huge project—2 million sq ft of distribution centers—on an exceptionally fast track of about one year, and it is set to be completed in August. What’s more, the site had previously been viewed as undevelopable.
In 1994, Earth Conservancy, a nonprofit organization based in the county, purchased the Blue Coal Corp. and its 16,000 acres of land out of bankruptcy. Over more than three decades, the group has worked with state and federal agencies to reclaim parcels of the land, including the 390-acre Hanover 9 site.