Richard F. Kosich is a freelance writer, community organizer, Chair of the Conshohocken Borough Republican Committee, and Vice-Chair of the Colonial Republicans. Thoughts and opinions are his own.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Editorial Board, Alterra Property Group’s proposed 300 unit apartment building in Conshohocken is a “win” for Southeastern Pennsylvania, mostly because the new apartment building is to be built on land owned by SEPTA originally reserved for a 528-space parking garage.
Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija, who also sits on SEPTA’s board, echoed the Inquirer’s sentiments when he said that “It feels like a win for SEPTA, a win for Conshohocken, and a win for all the people who want to live in a community that’s really booming and walkable.”
But is it really a “win” for the people who already live in Conshohocken? Did that notion ever cross Commissioner Makhija’s or the Editorial Board’s mind?
And far from being a “welcome sign”, SEPTA’s flip-flopping on their $48 million garage project in Conshohocken is concerning for those already inhabiting one of the most densely populated municipalities in the region.
Before expounding further, here’s the backstory leading up to SEPTA’s U-turn on their garage project.
How we got here
April, 2022: Conshohocken Borough Council votes 7-0 to change local zoning rules to prohibit multifamily housing on the land in question near Conshohocken Station and the Schuylkill river. SEPTA later promises to build parking on this parcel at 101 Washington Street for its new, fully accessible Conshohocken Station which opens on November 6, 2023.
April, 2023: SEPTA’s board tables the contract for its $48 million, 528-space parking garage adjacent to Conshohocken Station in the face of sustained criticism of its spending priorities. It then issues a request for proposals from residential developers instead.
June 22, 2023: Colleen Leonard (then Conshohocken Borough Council President) blasts SEPTA’s “180-degree course reversal” to build housing as “reactionary,” driven by negative public comments, and charges that the resulting waste of $23 million in public monies would be “fiscally irresponsible and a complete waste of public resources, time and money.”
July 20th, 2023: Conshohocken Borough Council drops opposition to SEPTA’s housing plan after representatives of SEPTA meet with Conshohocken officials, per SEPTA Board Member Robert Fox, Esquire.
According to Fox, SEPTA contacted several residential developers with the Borough of Conshohocken’s blessing, although Leonard has disputed that account.
March 27, 2025: SEPTA and Philadelphia-based Alterra officially agree to a 99-year lease where the multifamily housing builder will pay $600,000 a year to lease land at 101 Washington Street from the transit agency. With an added 3% annual rent increase thrown in, the total deal is valued at $330 million!
Conshohocken Borough Council’s role:
The above timeline raises serious ethical questions, like what changed between June and July of 2023 that allegedly caused Conshohocken Borough Council to drop its opposition to the apartment complex deal, and why did SEPTA table the contract for its $48 million parking garage adjacent to Conshohocken Station in the first place?
Regarding the former, Colleen Leonard is adamant that she never dropped her opposition to SEPTA’s plans, and that “Mr. Fox can say what he wants.” And while she acknowledged that SEPTA “had every right to come before Council”, she also reiterated that “I most certainly never changed my mind.”
Leonard, in fact, has consistently cited the need for the garage due to the borough’s increasing role as a regional employment center.
Current Borough Council President Tina Sokolowski provided additional context by acknowledging that SEPTA came to them with a request to change the project from a parking garage to the currently proposed apartment complex, but stopped short of acknowledging Council’s approval of the plan.
“We informed them they could certainly put forward a concept and reminded them of the zoning restrictions in that area. As we do for anyone looking at developing projects in Conshohocken” Sokolowski advised.
SEPTA and transit advocates’ outsized role:
SEPTA’s decision to table its garage project also raises legitimate concerns regarding the power and influence of a small but vocal group of activists making decisions for communities they don’t even live in, simply based upon a handful of criticisms.
As Colleen Leonard told SEPTA’s board: “A small group of individuals are criticizing your decision. Imagine the level of criticism you’ll receive when you could have built appropriate parking and chose not to solely based on 100 negative comments.”
Exactly how much influence SEPTA’s detractors had on their decision making process here is unclear, however, as multiple attempts to reach Commissioner Makhija (who lives in Narberth, not Conshohocken) went unanswered.
It should come as no surprise to learn that the Inquirer’s Editorial Board is one of those vocal critics of SEPTA’s spending priorities, but how many of their so-called “journalists” also live in Conshohocken? It’s a safe wager to bet probably none, yet we’ll never know, as they ignored multiple requests for comment for this article.
Ditto for transit activist Daniel Trubman, who according to his Muck Rack profile lives in Harlem, NYC, 111 miles away from Conshohocken! Attempts to reach Mr. Trubman were also unsuccessful, but it’s interesting to note that this is the same man who wished “Philadelphia had the courage to permanently flood the Vine Street Expressway to create a new waterfront neighborhood.”
He can keep his opinions to himself.
What the Editorial Board gets wrong:
The Inquirer’s Editorial Board cites unnamed “experts” to buttress their argument for the proposed apartment complex; these so-called experts claim that “public transit works best when riders can walk both to their departure point and to their destination once they disembark.”
That may be true, but it also assumes they have a reason to take public transit in the first place – i.e. not everyone in Conshohocken works in the city, and those that do always have the option of driving in instead.
From an economics point of view, for example, taking public transit isn’t necessarily economical; a (weekday) round-trip Regional Rail ticket from Conshohocken Station (Fare Zone 3) to Philadelphia (Fare Zone 1) on the Manayunk/Norristown Line costs $15.50, while the average “early-bird” parking rate for city garages run by the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) typically ranges from $13 to $18 per day. Discounted flat-rate early bird passes as low as $11.99 to $14 (depending on the location) are also available via third-party parking Apps.
Ironically, the Inquirer’s Editorial Board has already made a credible case against the apartment complex via prior editorials, where they openly acknowledge that the “pandemic-era trend toward remote and hybrid work, along with broader safety issues that plague the city, has taken a big bite out of ridership.”
But perhaps their greatest oversight, however, is their complete disregard for what current Conshohocken residents actually feel about building 300 additional rental units in an already maxed-out flood plain, in a municipality with over five times the average population density of Montgomery County, due to a population boom of roughly 30 percent in recent years.
Conclusion/why this matters
The mass-transit cultists at Inquirer’s Editorial Board conclude by advocating that combining public transit and real estate development is “a win for all.”
That rosy view, however, assumes a high percentage of these new apartment dwellers, in places like Conshohocken and elsewhere, will be exchanging their autos for a train ride downtown.
Only problem is, as the Inquirer itself has noted, SEPTA’s average weekday daily ridership is down significantly compared with pre-pandemic levels. That’s especially true for the Manayunk/Norristown Line, where ridership levels (as measured by Avg. Passengers Per Hour) have plummeted from 61.3 in 2019 to 42.5 in 2025.
Also, as Guy Ciarrocchi has written, SEPTA has other serious structural problems that need to be dealt with, which no amount of “traditional development patterns” can fix.
Jody Holton, SEPTA’s chief planning and strategy officer, has also openly acknowledged that this public-private partnerships venture “won’t solve all our budget problems, obviously”, yet feels compelled to plow ahead with them anyway.
And in a 2008 interview with PlanPhilly, SEPTA’s then-director of long-range planning David Fogel stated plainly, “We’re not a redevelopment authority.”
He was correct – they are NOT a redevelopment authority, nor should they be, especially without the input of those directly impacted by their well-intended by misguided policies.
Richard F. Kosich is a freelance writer, community organizer, Chair of the Conshohocken Borough Republican Committee, and Vice-Chair of the Colonial Republicans. Thoughts and opinions are his own.