Conshohocken's zoning board will hear a request Monday to extend the variances for a six-story riverfront office over a 960-space garage

Sun, 18 Oct 2026 08:32:44 -0400

The Conshohocken Zoning Hearing Board will take up a request on Monday, October 19, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. at Borough Hall to keep alive the variances for two office buildings planned behind the Millennium complex on the Schuylkill River. A variance is the board’s permission to build outside a specific zoning limit. The larger building, Building A, is a six-story office of 216,400 gross square feet on a four-story podium garage with 960 parking spaces, according to the borough’s zoning memo in the meeting packet. The board granted six variances on September 22, 2025, on the condition that they expire after one year unless a building permit was issued. The owner, Millennium IV Land Owner LLC, has asked for one more year, to September 22, 2027.

What the owner plans to build

The site is five condominium parcels totaling 4.932 acres behind the Millennium I, II and III buildings on Washington Street, bounded by Ash Street on the west and Poplar Street on the east. Today it holds a surface parking lot behind Millennium I, at 20 Ash Street, and open space behind Millennium II and III. Building A would replace part of that parking lot. Building B, a three-story office on a two-story podium garage with 236 spaces, would go on the open space behind 225 and 227 Washington Street.

Structures proposed for the Millennium IV parcels, as listed in the borough's October 1, 2026 zoning memo
Structure	Stories	Footprint (sq ft)	Gross floor area (sq ft)	Parking spaces
Building A office	6	36066	216400
Building A podium garage	4	63334	253336	960
Building B office	3	29280	87840
Building B podium garage	2	39729		236

Source: conshohockenpa.gov

The memo also lists a row of six surface spaces at Building A. The two office buildings together come to 304,240 gross square feet. Testimony recorded in the 2025 decision says Building A is meant for a single tenant and Building B for Morgan Properties, a tenant of the adjacent buildings. The applicant also testified that Building B would be built five to ten years in the future. The deed in the packet shows Millennium IV Land Owner LLC bought the parcels for $8.75 million in a deed effective June 8, 2022. The extension application gives a Morgan Properties email address for the applicant and the same 160 Clubhouse Road address in King of Prussia that the deed lists for Morgan Properties.

How the project compares with recent office construction

Building A alone would be large against what Montgomery County has completed lately. The county Planning Commission’s 2025 nonresidential construction report counted 29,115 square feet of new office space countywide in 2025, all of it in East Norriton, and 21,769 square feet in 2024. It counted none in Conshohocken in 2025.

New office space in Montgomery County has stayed under 60,000 square feet a year since 2022

Office square feet completed countywide by year, from county assessment records

Includes additions to existing buildings. Earlier years are updated as late assessments arrive. Source: assets.montgomerycountypa.gov

Office and total nonresidential square feet completed in Montgomery County, 2019 to 2025
year	Office (sq ft)	All nonresidential (sq ft)
2019	231187	1786199
2020	57582	2060664
2021	863932	2259069
2022	40268	2855338
2023	4250	1914946
2024	21769	1052512
2025	29115	1460398

Source: assets.montgomerycountypa.gov

Over the seven years, two years exceed Building A’s 216,400: 2019, at 231,187 square feet, and 2021, at 863,932. Office made up 2% of the 1,460,398 nonresidential square feet the county counted in 2025, which institutional and industrial projects led.

The six variances

The 2025 decision lists six departures from the borough zoning code. The site sits in the SP-2 Specially Planned District 2 and in the Floodplain Conservation Overlay District, which prohibits new buildings, fill, clearing, driveways, parking lots and stormwater basins without relief.

Zoning relief granted by the Conshohocken Zoning Hearing Board on September 22, 2025
Standard	Ordinance section	Ordinance limit	Granted in 2025
Building height	27-1503(3)(C)	85 feet more than 2000 feet from a SEPTA rail station	140 feet
Impervious coverage	27-1504(F)(2)	70% of the lot	79%
Separation between buildings	27-1505(B)(3)	30 feet minimum	17.9 feet
Building profile	27-1509(2)	250 linear feet	406 linear feet
Parking structure facing the river	27-1509(2)(C)	Not permitted	Permitted
Building in the floodplain overlay	27-1714(1)	Not permitted	Permitted

Source: conshohockenpa.gov

The height limit depends on distance from a rail station. The decision says the code allows up to 230 feet by conditional use within 2,000 feet of a SEPTA rail station, and caps a building farther away at 85 feet. The board found the site has unusual physical conditions that create a hardship and attached one condition: the fire marshal must approve the 17.9-foot separation for Building B.

Why the extension is needed

Section 27-613 of the zoning code says a variance expires if the applicant does not obtain all required permits within one year. The borough’s zoning memo, by Allison A. Lee, PE, dated October 1, 2026, sets out the order of approvals before permits can be issued. Borough Council must first grant conditional use approval, a separate permission that council decides after a hearing. Then comes land development review, with recommendations from the borough and county planning commissions, followed by preliminary and final approval by council. The owner then applies for permits. The owner’s attorney wrote on September 2, 2026 that the project “remains in the process of finalizing its conditional use approval and land development applications.” The borough received the request on September 3, before the original relief ran out. The application came with a $500 fee and a $1,500 escrow deposit.

Steps in the Millennium IV zoning case
date	Step
2022-06-08	Deed to Millennium IV Land Owner LLC for the five condominium parcels takes effect ($8.75 million)
2025-05-28	Variance application filed with the Zoning Hearing Board
2025-08-18	Zoning Hearing Board hearing
2025-09-22	Written decision grants all six variances with a one-year limit
2026-09-03	Borough receives the request for a one-year extension
2026-09-22	One-year limit on the 2025 relief reached with no building permit issued
2026-10-19	Zoning Hearing Board hearing on the extension
2027-09-22	New expiration date if the extension is granted

Source: conshohockenpa.gov

What this means for contractors bidding commercial work

If the board grants the extension, the variances stay valid while the owner goes through conditional use and land development, and construction still waits on permits. Borough Council and the Planning Commission post their agendas as PDFs on the borough’s meetings page. Check them for a Millennium IV conditional use hearing or land development application, since those are the next public steps the zoning memo names.

The relief covers site clearing, filling and placement inside the floodplain overlay, according to the 2025 decision. Any firm working in the borough registers with Conshohocken first. The commercial registration form lists a $90 fee and a certificate of insurance naming the borough as holder, with at least $100,000 to $300,000 of bodily injury coverage. The contractor registration guide covers the borough and nearby townships, and the local market data guide tracks county permits and jobs.

Caveats

The extension has not been decided, and the board can grant, deny or attach conditions. The building sizes come from the borough’s memo and may change. The applicant testified in 2025 that the plans were still subject to change within the limits of the relief granted. The memo describes a 5-foot sidewalk to the river trail, while the 2025 decision records testimony about a 10-foot sidewalk. For the two-story Building B garage, the memo gives a gross floor area of four times the footprint, which could not be verified against its height, so the table leaves that figure blank.

The county’s office figures come from assessment records. They count net leasable floor space, while the borough memo gives gross floor area, which includes common areas, so the comparison is approximate. The county assigns a year when a property is first assessed, often months after completion, and revises earlier years as records come in. No construction cost estimate appears in the packet.

Development pipeline | Conshy Contracting

Conshohocken's zoning board will hear a request Monday to extend the variances for a six-story riverfront office over a 960-space garage

What the owner plans to build

How the project compares with recent office construction

The six variances

Why the extension is needed

What this means for contractors bidding commercial work

Caveats