The federal government is now officially trying to sell the former Big Lots Distribution Center in Tremont Township, along with the Berks County warehouse it bought the same day to transform into ICE detention centers.
Both properties are listed for sale by commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield as part of what it calls the “Federal Warehouse Portfolio,” a package of seven warehouses across the country.
Tremont Township and Schuylkill County officials were notified this past week that the federal government planned to sell the former Big Lots property, sources tell Coal Region Canary.
The federal government paid $119,515,000 for the Tremont Township warehouse in January. It planned to turn the building into a 7,500-bed detention center, which would have been one of the largest in the country.
That’s nearly $10 million less than the last private owner paid. BIGTRPA001 LLC, which sold the warehouse to the federal government, bought it in June 2020 for $129.5 million. Before that, the property belonged to Closeout Distribution Inc., which bought it from Schuylkill Economic Development Corp. for $1.75 million in 1999.
It paid $87,402,500 for the warehouse in Upper Bern Township.
The listing describes the portfolio as more than 5.3 million square feet of mostly new bulk distribution buildings and says all seven are “currently vacant.” Each property is being offered separately, and buyers can make offers on individual properties or the whole portfolio. The properties will be delivered free and clear of existing financing, according to the listing.
The other five properties are in Romulus, Michigan; Social Circle and Flowery Branch, Georgia; Salt Lake City; and Socorro, Texas. By square footage, the two Pennsylvania warehouses make up about a third of the portfolio.
So far, only the Romulus property has a deadline for offers: Monday, Oct. 19. The dates for Tremont, Upper Bern and the other four are listed as “TBD.” No asking prices are listed publicly.
Big Lots shut down the distribution center in early 2025 during the retailer’s bankruptcy, costing about 500 people their jobs at Big Lots.
If the federal government sells the Tremont warehouse to a private owner, the property would go back on the tax rolls. The property is assessed at $59,687,400.
Once the federal government took ownership in January, the property became exempt from local property taxes. Schuylkill County, Tremont Township, and Pine Grove Area School District lost about $1 million combined in property tax revenue for 2026 (about $500,000 for the school district, $222,000 for the County, and $196,000 for the township).
Big Lots made up nearly 60% of the property tax revenue Tremont Township expected to collect in 2026.
“That’s the only thing we had in our township is Big Lots,” Supervisor Larry Bender said in February, days after the sale became public.
In March, federal officials verbally promised to reimburse the three taxing bodies for the lost revenue during a virtual meeting with the commissioners and U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, Schuylkill County Commissioners Chairman Larry Padora said at the time. Padora said he wanted that promise in writing, which never came.
In June, after reports first surfaced that the federal government planned to shed the warehouse, Padora told Coal Region Canary a sale wouldn’t change what he expects from the federal government.
“It doesn’t matter to me if they sell it or don’t sell it. I still want the payment in lieu of taxes. If they sell it, it’ll be back on the tax rolls,” Padora said.
ICE’s plans for the Tremont warehouse ran into a roadblock in March, when the state’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) imposed orders on the federal government, Tremont Township, and Schuylkill County Municipal Authority (SCMA). The orders barred water and sewer service at the warehouse, and blocked anyone from occupying it until the federal government addressed the lack of adequate water and sewer service there and proved it could meet state drinking water and sewage laws.
DEP said the warehouse’s 1999 sewage approval limited it to 6,000 gallons of sewage per day, while the detention center was estimated to produce between 450,000 and 1 million gallons a day. The Tremont Wastewater Treatment Plant is only authorized to treat 500,000 gallons a day.
On the water side, DEP estimated the detention center could need up to 900,000 gallons a day. SCMA’s Tremont Water System can treat 330,000 gallons a day, and the warehouse used an average of 7,675 gallons a day in its last year as a distribution center.
ICE appealed the orders to the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board, arguing the state was weaponizing environmental regulations to block a federal operation.
In June, The New York Times reported that DHS planned to either sell the Tremont and Upper Bern warehouses or transfer them to other federal agencies. At the time, a DHS spokesperson told Coal Region Canary the department was “moving swiftly to utilize EXISTING detention space with our state and county partners.”
Then, in a July 13 letter to DEP, ICE said it would not use the Tremont warehouse as a detention center and would keep its water and sewer use at the same levels approved for Big Lots. DEP accepted that plan July 22 but kept its order in effect. The same day, ICE withdrew its appeal, and the Environmental Hearing Board closed the case the next day.
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