This story was produced by the Berks County office of Spotlight PAan independent, non-partisan newsroom. Sign up for Good Day, Berks, a daily dose of essential local stories at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/gooddayberks.
UPPER BERN – The Trump administration has quietly acquired a nearly 520,000-square-foot warehouse in Berks County as it plans to turn such facilities into U.S. immigration detention centers.
The warehouse, located at 3501 Mountain Road in Upper Bern Township, was sold to the U.S. government on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for $87.4 million, deed records show. The purchase was registered on February 2.
Spotlight PA visited the warehouse, which is located about a mile off I-78, on Jan. 15 and saw about two dozen people touring the exterior of the building. A man who arrived at the scene early that day identified himself to a reporter as ICE.
The property was most recently named the Hamburg Logistics Center and before that was the site of the Mountain Springs Arena, a county landmark known for rodeos and demolition derbies. It borders an Amazon warehouse and Mountain Springs Camping Resort.
The building is one of at least 23 that ICE plans to turn into an immigration detention center, Bloomberg reports. The Berks County warehouse could hold up to 1,500 beds.
ICE completed the purchase of a warehouse in nearby Tremont Township in Schuylkill County on Monday, according to a filing. The Tremont property is located less than 300 meters from a kindergarten and has already faced fierce opposition from residents.
An ICE spokesman did not respond to any questions about the acquisition of the Berks County warehouse and instead praised the agency as targeting “vicious criminals.”
“Thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill, ICE has new funding to expand detention space to keep these criminals off America’s streets before they are permanently removed from our communities,” the spokesperson said.
The Upper Bern Township attorney said in an emailed statement that community leaders learned of the sale Monday. They refused to answer questions.
“The city was not involved in this transfer and has not received any requests from the previous or new owners regarding the future use of the property,” the statement said. “The city has no further comment on this matter at this time.”
State Sen. Chris Gebhard and Rep. Jamie Barton, Republicans who represent the area, said they reached out to federal contacts to gather more information about how the Department of Homeland Security plans to use the warehouse.
“Our immediate concerns include the potential loss of property tax revenue for the host municipality, county and school district, as well as security and perimeter considerations,” lawmakers said in a joint statement. “We look forward to engaging directly with the appropriate federal officials to resolve these issues. Once additional information is available, we will provide an update.”
The property is assessed at $22 million and currently pays $198,286 annually in county property taxes, below the current tax rate of 9.013 mills. Combined with Hamburg Area School District and township taxes, the loss of tax revenue from the federal government acquisition would be approximately $624,000.
State Sen. Judy Schwank (D., Berks) declined to comment Monday on the warehouse purchase. In a previous interview with Spotlight PA, she called the potential sale at the time “deeply troubling,” especially given reports of mistreatment of people held in ICE facilities. She released a statement about the “ICE action in Minneapolis” on Jan. 27, shortly after federal agents killed Alex Pretti.
“My concern is that knowing the history of some of these other facilities located around the country, it’s not good,” she said. “I don’t necessarily want to see something like this hosted in our county.”
The deed completed Monday shows the property was sold to ICE by an LLC connected to PCCP, a national commercial real estate firm. The firm purchased the warehouse in 2024 for $57.5 million, deed records show.
Reached by phone Monday afternoon, PCCP partner Greg Eberhardt — who is the authorized signatory for 3501 Mountain Road Owner LLC on the latest deed — denied knowledge of the property and its sale and declined to comment further.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Eberhardt said before hanging up on a Spotlight PA reporter. “I don’t make company comments.”
Upper Bern Township is located on the border of Berks and Schuylkill counties with a population of approximately 1,600 people. The community is overwhelmingly white, with only 2.8% of residents identifying as another race, according to the 2020 census.
Bridget Cambria, an attorney at Aldea, a nonprofit that provides pro bono immigration legal services, said the detention center will have a “disruptive” and “frightening” impact on Berks County’s immigrant community.
“If there are people living free and in peace knowing they’re doing the right thing, they can go through their immigration process or stay with their family or find a way to legalize their status, they’re going to be more afraid to do that with a huge detention center in their backyard,” Cambria said.
A 2022 study by the Detention Watch Center and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center found that immigrants are more likely to be arrested by ICE in counties with more detention space.
BEFORE YOU GO… If you learned anything from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you that engages in accountability journalism that gets results.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports and video streaming, go to ABC27.