EAST UNION TOWNSHIP -- Almost 200 people in the Hazleton area will soon be looking for new jobs because one of the first distribution centers at the Humboldt Industrial Park is closing.
After 16 years, the distribution center in Schuylkill County is set to shut down. Office Depot announced that its center at in the Humboldt Industrial Park will close this summer.
It comes after the company merged with OfficeMax in 2013.
The signs at the park near Hazleton still say OfficeMax but those signs will soon be blank and many people will be out of a job.
"I believe the actual employee count is about 190 right now. There's also about 44 temp workers out there. It's a substantial hit for the community," said CAN DO official Kevin O'Donnell.
CAN DO, based in Hazleton, manages the industrial park and says OfficeMax was one of the first companies to move in back in the late 1990s.
The distribution center opened as Keystone Opportunity Zone, which allows companies to a develop land with greatly reduced state and local taxes.
"Governor Tom Ridge came down because it was the very first KOZ site to open up in Pennsylvania."
CAN DO says this distribution center opened in 1999. Many of the people who worked there then, still work here today, but now those people will lose their jobs.
"Oh, my God, all of those people are going to be laid off? Jobs are so hard to find right now," said Angela Reinhart of Nuremberg.
Some who live in the Hazleton area can sympathize with the laid-off workers knowing just how hard it is to land another job.
"It's hard. I mean I just started a new job, so I know the struggle," said Joel Santigo.
By the end of the summer this 600,000 square-foot facility will be empty and people there hope another company moves in and starts hiring.
"They got to put something in there, there's got to be a way to fix the economy. Maybe they can give them some tax breaks or something to the companies and get them in there!"
Newswatch 16 reached out to Office Depot. Its office did not return our calls.
