Conshy's O'Neill is back - and building

A decade ago, O'Neill Properties, a major force in reshaping Conshohocken's waterfront, had shovels in the ground all along the East Coast.

Then the recession hit. Creditors sued, winning judgments in the millions. More than half the staff lost their jobs. Those who didn't took furloughs and counted themselves lucky as they watched competitors go under.

"We definitely had a gallows mentality," said Stephen Forster, a former executive. "Everyone felt like, Is this the end of the company?"

"Brian came back in every day, never once doubting that things were going to work out," Forster said of company president Brian O'Neill.

So far, they seem to be.

ONeill's current projects include a $120 million apartment and townhouse development in Bridgeport, Montgomery County; a shopping and residential mecca in Sayreville, N.J.; $75 million for more offices in Conshohocken; and a newly opened 250-unit residential building near Malvern, Chester County.

The recession slammed the brakes on companies and multimillion-dollar projects across the country. But the stumbles - and rebound - of O'Neill's company is another indicator the development comeback in the region is nearly complete, said Michael Boyer, a manager of long-range planning for the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

"The number of residential building permits has rebounded nicely in the past two years and is almost back to pre-recession levels," Boyer said.

O'Neill, 55, called a visionary by peers and government officials, made his fortune seeing land's potential before anyone else.

"He loves creating," said Bart Blatstein, a prominent Philadelphia developer. "Brian's not strictly a money guy. There are easier ways to make money than what he does."

'A Howitzer'

He is also tenacious. In 2009, he was ordered to repay $64 million in loans to Citizens Bank for the Malvern-area project and one in Bensalem, Bucks County. In response, O'Neill sued the bank for $8 billion.

"There's a rule on the street," said O'Neill. "Somebody hits you with a pea shooter, you hit them with a Howitzer."

They settled out of court. O'Neill declined to say whether he came out ahead. "The last thing you ever want to do is brag about how you came out in a fight," he said.

Fighting back is not always an option. The recession forced O'Neill to abandon ambitious projects, including developments in Norristown, and Bancroft Mills in Delaware.

Another notable Conshohocken builder, Don Pulver, likened the 2007 economic collapse to musical chairs. O'Neill was one of those in the midst of big projects when the music stopped.

"All of a sudden you're sitting there and you have carrying costs," Pulver said. "And you have no income, and all expense."

Between 2009 and 2013, O'Neill had faced at least $83 million in debt through court proceedings, records show.

Communities where O'Neill had planned his specialty projects - repurposing old industrial sites - were left adrift. Norristown, for instance, was supposed to get a convention center and ball field. But in 2010, O'Neill sold the tract and walked away.

"Did he perhaps oversell a bit in terms of the exhibits and the discussions and the presentations? Yeah, perhaps," said Jerry Nugent, executive director of the Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority. "I think that he believed it could happen."

Nugent and O'Neill called the Norristown site complicated, with obstacles like a treatment plant, a proposed turnpike ramp that never happened, and a lack of public financing.

Forster remembered O'Neill making calls until 10 p.m. some nights in a bid to keep his company going.

"But for that perseverance, he wouldn't have made it through," he said.

Regular guy

During an interview at his King of Prussia office, O'Neill held court in a conference room with two whiteboard walls covered in organizational charts and brainstorming notes. He grinned frequently and described with superlatives new projects and the staff he has been rebuilding.

He says he has 40 projects in the works and a $4 billion portfolio. But the Merion native - who now lives in Villanova and has homes on Cape Cod and in Newport, R.I. - tells stories about what a regular guy he is. As children, he and his five brothers spoiled a posh boat race on the cape during a family vacation by tipping over some boats, something he still laughs about.

He lived out of his car in New York City for a time after leaving home as a teenager, he said, and he and his wife of 31 years, Miriam, made their home in a $600-a-month apartment when they newly married.

"What we concluded during the recession was if we had to live in that apartment [again], it wouldn't be a problem because we were happy," he said.

Beyond his profile as a developer, O'Neill was hailed by some as a savior three years ago when he led an unlikely $12 million fund-raising campaign to save four Philadelphia-area Catholic high schools that had been slated to close. At the time, O'Neill said he did it in part to honor a pledge he made to his dying mother to help the Catholic Church.

Finding projects with a societal benefit is often a theme of his work. O'Neill consistently sees his work as both profitable and good. Redeveloping brownfields is good for the environment, he said, and his residential developments are designed to create more social communities.

His latest passion is addiction rehabs. The Affordable Care Act expanded coverage for addiction treatment, he said. There's money to be made, of course, but he also speaks of taking part in interventions and friends who died from overdoses.

"To me, it's a fantastic opportunity to do good and do well at the same time," he said. 

How well O'Neill is doing is tough to pin down. He is allergic to giving specific numbers for profits and loss, but he did say the latter half of 2014 was his first profitable six months since the recession.

He has about 75 staffers now, after laying off more than 100, something he said made him "sick to my stomach." As he rebuilds, former staffers receive hiring preference.

The rebound

Privately, O'Neill was not always confident he would survive.

"I'd go home and, believe me, I was afraid quietly," he said.

He vowed never again to personally guarantee loans, he said. He also focused his business on residential properties for rent.

O'Neill still participated in some projects, including the 20-acre Philadelphia food distribution center. And he planned. He sought municipal approvals so land would be available to develop when the economy improved.

'The psyche'

Uptown Worthington is the most tangible evidence of his rebound. The 1.6 million-square-foot development in East Whiteland was described in 2010 legal papers as the largest privately developed mixed-use project in the state. It is seen as a crucial development in the area.

During a tour, O'Neill touted the three-month-old rental building as though he had installed each ornate cabinet knob and laid every roll of carpet himself. Some halls ended in curtains. Beyond, contractors were still finishing work.

There is vast undeveloped space on Route 202 between the apartments and a Wegmans and Target, but the plan is for a complex of shops and housing that could bring 19,000 jobs, according to O'Neill.

"What this development signals on a very large scale is a change to the psyche of an office park," said Terry Woodman, township manager in East Whiteland. "Corporate parks were always sterile. This is bringing all amenities to the office park."

The other signature effort could be his vision for rehabs.

Treatment

O'Neill aims to get 13,000 people a year sober. He can recite addiction stats and said he had contracts to buy land or buildings for 15 clinics, including in Gloucester Township, Haddonfield, Paoli, and Plymouth Meeting.

"Our mission is to get people into treatment first, get them to our location second," he said.

That description is classic O'Neill: part sales pitch, part social work, with a dash of gusto.

More proof he's back: "Take a ball, hold it under water," said Blatstein, his fellow developer. "The minute you loosen your grip on the ball, it pops back up. That's Brian. You can't hold him down."

BY THE NUMBERS

40  Projects on Brian O'Neill's schedule.

$4B In his portfolio.

75 People on his staff, down from more than 175.

$120M Apartment and townhouse development in Bridgeport on tap.

$75M In offices in Conshohocken set to be built.

250 Units in a residential building near Malvern scheduled.

Source: Philly.com