CONSHOHOCKEN — Borough Council will choose one of two development proposals at its Aug. 21 meeting to redevelop an empty parcel on Fayette Street, rebuild the Verizon building for police and borough offices and provide additional downtown parking.
Council members spent an hour in a closed executive session Wednesday night and decided they were ready to take the final vote Aug. 21, said council President Paul McConnell.
“The council members had done their homework ahead of time and people were ready to talk,” McConnell said. “There was talk about the content of the two proposals and about the selection process.”
The two proposals from Brandywine Realty Trust (BRT) of Radnor, Delaware County, and Keystone Property Group (KPG) of Lower Merion were received by council and the Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority (RDA) on July 24. Conshohocken officials hired the RDA to draft the “request for proposal” and manage the redevelopment project.
McConnell would not say which proposal had more support among the seven council members.
“We don’t take straw votes in executive sessions,” he said.
Council members discussed the selection process and the two proposals Wednesday night with RDA Executive Director Jerry Nugent III and RDA Solicitor Bruce Nicholson.
The Times Herald received redacted versions of both proposals from the RDA on Aug. 1 after filing a Pennsylvania Right to Know request. Nugent said in a July 31 letter that the information was “commercial or financial information received by an agency which is privileged or confidential and the disclosure of which would cause substantial harm.”
Nugent said the RDA board would recommend one proposal after Borough Council acts on Aug. 21.
“I need to talk with my chairman, but I expect it will either be late August or early September,” Nugent said. “I have to get a quorum together. It is fair to say it will be shortly following the decision by Conshohocken.”
Nugent was not sure if a full copy of the winning proposal would be made public following the selection by both groups.
“A development agreement would be made with whoever is chosen. That is where the details of the financial transaction are contained,” he said. “The development agreement will outline who does what and what is required of the two parties.”
Nugent said it was likely the former Verizon building could be put on a faster track than whatever is approved for the redevelopment area.
“There are so many analyses that have to be done for architecture and engineering,” he said. “It could be six to nine months before they get a realistic set of drawings for the site next to the firehouse. There are pre-development studies that have to be done.”
The redacted version of the BRT proposal included an executive summary and six conceptual drawings illustrating the firm’s plans for replacing the Verizon building, at 402 Fayette St., with a 24,000-square-foot building for borough workers and the Police Department.
“Our development concepts contemplate a 400-car, fully automated parking garage beneath a 226,920-square-foot office building and the addition of 200 parking spaces at our existing parking facility located at 1 and 101 West Elm St.,” the BRT proposal states. “Our development plan utilizes the existing facade of the historic firehouse and incorporates a public amenity in the form of a restaurant into the building’s use.”
The conceptual drawing for the proposed office building on the vacant, 15,768-square-foot parcel at the intersection of Fayette and Elm streets shows a 14-story building. Phase I of the BRT proposal includes the parking garage under the office building and the reuse of the historic firehouse.
A two-way garage entrance would be located on West Elm Street. A garage exit ramp and the lobby entrance for the office building would be located off a driveway to Fayette Street.
Phase II includes the demolition of the Verizon building and construction of “a new public park and a new 24,000-square-foot building,” the proposal said. “Our Phase II development includes the required 70-car parking spaces, a portion of which will be secured for police vehicle parking which includes a sally port for secure police access to the building.”
Borough administrative offices and a public meeting space would occupy 10,000 square feet in the three-story building. Police offices would occupy 10,000 square feet on the lower level.
“The main entrance to the municipal building will be from Fayette Street where a park setting and public gathering place will exist at the corner of 4th St. and Fayette St.,” the proposal said. “Within the park setting, a tiered entry into the municipal building will double as an amphitheater setting for small concerts and plays in the park.”
The redacted BRT proposal given to The Times Herald did not include the proposal description, schedule, terms, response to the request for proposal (RFP) and the exhibits.
The redacted version of the KPG proposal included six conceptual drawings and an outline of plans for an 18-story hotel at the Fayette and Elm street intersection with ground-level restaurants, an eight-story parking garage to replace the existing three-story garage and a new, 200,000 square-foot office tower to be located at the intersection of First Avenue and Fayette Street.
“With ownership of the adjacent buildings and parking garage, we have the flexibility to combine these parcels with the firehouse and land parcels to create an extraordinary master plan,” said William Glazer, the CEO of KPG, in the proposal’s cover letter.
The hotel would have more than 200 rooms, conference facilities, fitness center, restaurants and a rooftop lounge. The new parking garage would have parking for the hotel guests, office tenants and a minimum of 300 parking spaces for downtown Conshohocken businesses and visitors, Glazer said.
The historic firehouse would be converted into a brew pub with indoor and outdoor seating. An outdoor plaza area facing Fayette Street would be built between the hotel and office building.
The Verizon building would be renovated in the KPG proposal with a new facade, new roof and new building systems. The lower level would be demolished to create additional parking for building tenants. A “dedicated parking area for police vehicles, as well as a separate sally port entrance into the second floor” would be created for the borough Police Department.
Glazer said KPG would “provide the Conshohocken Borough with (a redacted) return on their initial $3.25 million acquisition of the building, making their investment ‘money good.’”
The redacted KPG proposal given to The Times Herald did not include the land parcel proposed deal structure and estimated project schedule; the proposed deal structure, capital improvements/schedule and letter of intent for the Verizon building; a standard lease document and examples of tenant billing/CAM statements.
Conshohocken owns the Verizon building and the historic firehouse, while the RDA owns the adjacent apparatus building and the vacant parcel. Borough officials purchased the Verizon building for $3.25 million from the Verizon Corp. in September 2007. Council rejected a purchase proposal for $3.25 million in December 2008.
Source: TimesHerald.com
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