300-unit apartment building is planned for Conshohocken on SEPTA’s land

Alterra Property Group is planning a 300-unit apartment building in Conshohocken on land owned by SEPTA. The property was previously slated to host a 528-space parking garage that had been met with significant pushback from transit advocates.

At SEPTA’s Thursday board meeting, the transit agency authorized a long-term ground lease and development contract at 101 Washington St. with Philadelphia-based Alterra, a well-known multifamily housing developer. Leaders at the agency said they hope this would be the first of many public-private partnerships to build housing on underutilized land owned by SEPTA.

A SEPTA spokesperson confirmed that the planned apartment building along the Schuylkill would be market rate, with “appropriate parking for residents” and potential space for a small commercial use such as a cafe. The proposal would still allow the transit agency to add to its parking capacity near Conshohocken station, with 119 dedicated parking spaces for riders included in the project. The general public could use them during off-peak hours.

“We don’t currently have the funding to build the parking garage as we originally envisioned, but this development enables us to do parking and get transit-oriented development there as well,” said Jody Holton, SEPTA’s chief planning and strategy officer.

Holton said this is the largest housing project SEPTA has ever partnered with a private developer on, and the agency is seeking more opportunities to use surface parking lots as mixed-use projects with housing. She said they were also looking to partner with developers at stations in Ambler, Swarthmore, and Bristol Borough, and Germantown Station in Philadelphia.

The approval comes at the culmination of a long debate over the redevelopment of the land, which was initially slated for a mammoth new $48 million parking garage that drew the ire of transit advocates.

The initial proposal from SEPTA and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation was meant to attract car commuters from the highway to park in Conshohocken and then continue their trip into the city by train. It was considered around the same time that the borough’s new station was launched.

Hyperlocal publication MoreThanTheCurve reported in 2023 that they had confirmed estimates from transit advocates that each new space was estimated to cost the financially beleaguered transit agency $117,878 — and that the Conshohocken stop currently had fewer daily riders than the planned number of spaces.

In the face of sustained criticism of its spending priorities, SEPTA retreated from the solo-garage plan and issued a request for proposals from residential developers.

Alterra won the bid. The company is known for apartment buildings like Lincoln Square at Broad and Washington and the post-pandemic office-to-residential conversion of 1701 Market St. (The company declined to comment on its plans ahead of Thursday’s board meeting.)

Over the 99-year ground lease, Alterra will pay SEPTA $600,000 a year, and escalating 3% each year, for a total of $330 million over the lease. Holton said they were negotiating with the developer over a potential revenue-sharing because the agency is giving the ground and parking investment.

“It won’t solve all our budget problems, obviously, but it’s investments like this that make something like this parking project actually come to fruition as we face these challenges,” said Holton.

But as MoreThanTheCurve reported in 2023, Conshohocken’s borough council initially protested the abandonment of the plan — with a previous council member saying “the borough cannot sustain additional multifamily development in that area.”

In 2022, the borough council had changed the zoning of the area to prevent multifamily housing from being built on the site. That means a legislative change or a zoning variance will be needed for the project to move forward.

“To date, the Borough has not received a land use application for a transit-oriented development on the subject property,” said Tina Sokolowski, borough president, in an email. “Once received, any application would be processed pursuant to the Borough’s land use processes, in compliance with state law.”

Sokolowski declined to comment further on Alterra’s project or the possibility of changing the zoning at 101 Washington St.

Although local leaders control zoning, some county-level politicians expressed support for the project.

“We are in the middle of a housing crisis, here in Montgomery County and nationally,” said Neil Makhija, who is on SEPTA’s board and is one of the county’s three commissioners. “Transit-oriented development like this project is exactly where we should be adding new homes.”