On January 19th, the Plymouth Township Zoning Hearing Board held a hearing on an application that seeks a special exception to convert the former DoubleTree Suites at 640 Fountain Road in Plymouth Meeting (Plymouth Township) into apartments. The property owner, Kingsbury Financial, closed the hotel in November 2025 and is the entity seeking the zoning relief.

The hotel had 253 suites. If converted, the plan is for 173 one-bedroom and 40 two-bedroom units. The units would be 600 and 1,200 square feet, respectively. The interior hotel lobby and event spaces would be converted to serve as amenity areas for the residents. Nothing on the exterior of the property would change.

The applicant’s argument is that hotels are an allowable use within the Planned Office Park Zoning District, and a special exception is warranted as apartments are of the same general character as a permitted use within the zoning district.”

During the hearing, the applicant had a traffic expert testify that the traffic generated by the hotel and the proposed apartments would essentially be the same.

Members of the zoning hearing board questioned whether a special exception is warranted for a hotel to apartment conversion. Zoning hearing board member, Karen Bramblett, stated that the township’s zoning code’s definitions of hotel and apartments don’t match. Kingsbury’s attorney addressed this offering that they don’t have to be an exact match, but only similar.

Members of the board also asked questions about the impact on the local school system, expected rents, and if any hardship existed.

The applicant offered that the size and number of bedrooms offered wouldn’t be conducive to large families and that they didn’t expect many children. Regarding rents, the applicant offered that it was able to purchase the property at a price that allows them to offer the apartments at a rate that would be attractive to those in occupations such as teachers, etc.

The hearing was continued to February 16th at 7:00 p.m. During this meeting, the applicant intends to address issues raised by the members of the board. You can view the agenda here.

The planning commission voted to not recommend granting the special exception in January.

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