SEPTA has approved plans for a 300-unit apartment building to be constructed on land it owns near the Conshohocken Regional Rail station, one of several suburban properties the authority hopes to lease for development.
At a board meeting Thursday, SEPTA authorized a 99-year lease with Alterra Property Group that allows the developer to build an apartment complex on a former industrial lot at 101 Washington St. SEPTA purchased the 6.5-acre site three years ago for $9.75 million.
Conshohocken Station, which opened in 2023, is a stop on SEPTA's Manayunk/Norristown Regional Rail Line located not far off Interstate 76 in Montgomery County. SEPTA had planned to build a 528-space parking garage on Washington Street, presenting it as a "park-and-ride" option where people could split their commutes between cars and trains.
The garage project had received grant funding for traffic mitigation on I-76, but support for the idea waned when SEPTA's Regional Rail ridership declined following the COVID-19 pandemic. SEPTA instead opted to explore whether the Conshohocken property could be suitable for housing and parking.
"We want the projects that are going to happen on our sites to reflect the needs and character of the community," Ken Starr, SEPTA's manager of joint real estate development, said Monday. "We don't want to propose something that folks don't want because they don't think it fits."
Alterra, which is based in Philadelphia, will pay SEPTA $333 million over the life of the lease. Along with the apartments and a cafe, Alterra's plan includes 354 parking spaces to be used by residents of the property and SEPTA riders – either in a single garage or in two separate structures, Starr said.
To move forward, the project would need borough leaders in Conshohocken to approve a zoning variance that would allow for multifamily housing at the property. Nearby the train station, at 51 Washington St., developer LCOR opened the 304-unit Birch apartment building two years ago.
"There's still quite a bit of coordination and collaboration with the borough ahead of us," Starr said.
Conshohocken officials and Alterra could not immediately be reached for comment.
SEPTA is pursuing similar residential projects with private developers near some of its other stations, including on land it owns near stations in Germantown and Ambler and in Langhorne, Bristol and Warminster, all in Bucks County.
Starr said SEPTA consulted with transportation agencies in Boston, New York, Portland, Atlanta and other cities to learn about how they have partnered with communities to develop housing on underutilized land near transportation hubs. In Philadelphia, developers have prioritized building homes close to SEPTA's subway stations – particularly in Fishtown and Northern Liberties – but housing developments around suburban train stations often require more community planning.
The proposal in Conshohocken would include 300 market-rate apartments, Starr said, and SEPTA is open to partnering with developers on more affordable rentals for future projects. During meetings and open houses in Germantown and Ambler, affordable homes and questions about stormwater management have been among the concerns from residents and community leaders.
SEPTA expects to put out a call for developers bids on its project in Ambler later in the spring.
SEPTA views these projects as a way to stimulate use of public transit by making the areas around train stations more accessible and integrated with their communities. Once several housing developments have been completed, Starr said SEPTA expects more communities and developers to have interest in similar plans. The leases on the land also will give SEPTA a reliable revenue stream as the authority navigates a fiscal crisis that threatens to curtail service in the years ahead.
"You're not going to close the funding gap on these land leases, but what you're creating is 99 years of steady payments," Starr said. "A lot of them, depending on how you structure the deal, they're going to compound on an annual basis. It's really nice growth … It's essentially creating an annuity for the authority. It helps."
