Innovation 411 Fee Owner, LLC has submitted a conditional use application for a data center with the Borough of West Conshohocken for property along Front Street at the border with Upper Merion Township. Innovation 411 Fee Owner is an entity associated with developer Brian O’Neill of MLP Ventures. O’Neill has proposed a series of data centers in neighboring Upper Merion and Plymouth townships.
In the above image, the green open space area is a portion of the property. The image below shows the borders with Upper Merion and Plymouth townships. The specific property (shown with the red bold outline below) is slightly downriver and across the river from the former steel plant in Conshohocken (Plymouth Township), where another data center is seeking approval.
According to O’Neill’s application, the property is vacant and, before he acquired it, served as a quarry, cement plant, and disposal site for municipal solid waste over the years.
O’Neill first became involved with the property and an adjacent property in Upper Merion in 2018. The Upper Merion side, which included a GSK campus, was transformed into Discovery Center. O’Neill bought out his partners in 2020 and today controls the property under the Innovation 411 Fee Owner entity. In 2023, O’Neill sought and received a conditional use approval for a research/development and warehouse campus for uses related to life sciences.
The current conditional use application seeks to have the previous approval amended to allow a computer data center/data warehouse campus that has accessory uses such as primary and backup generators, HVAC equipment, switchgear, gas fuel cells, electrical substations, utility equipment & pads.
In June 2026, West Conshohocken’s borough council voted to adopt a data center ordinance that allows data centers by conditional use in the Heavy Industrial zoning district. The heavy industrial district line is Balligomingo Road and extends to the border with Upper Merion and the Schuylkill River.
This month, the council amended the data center ordinance that addressed data standards and regulations.
Before adopting a data center ordinance, Council President Stephen Blumenthal said at a December 2025 meeting that the council is responsible for regulating data centers through zoning and pointed to state law requiring municipalities to “provide for all land uses somewhere within their municipal boundaries.” The adopted ordinance generally aligned with a joint document from Montgomery and Chester counties that recommended allowing data centers in heavy industrial zoning districts as a conditional use.
According to the minutes of the September 8th meeting of West Conshohocken’s council, the application is scheduled for review by the planning commission and the conditional use hearing before council in November 2026.
Photo (Top) – Google
In-article Map – Montgomery County