Council Terminates Parking Garage Lease in Downtown Conshy

Conshohocken Borough Council voted in May to cancel a lease with Oliver Tyrone Pulver Corporation for use of the parking garage located at Two Tower Bridge on the corner of East First Avenue and Fayette Street in Conshohocken, effective July 1.

The lease with Pulver Corporation, in place since 2003, allowed the borough to use half of the top level and all of the lower levels of the parking deck for a cost of $1,500 per month. 

The top portion of the parking lot that faces East First Avenue is under a separate agreement and will not be impacted by this lease termination.

According to borough solicitor Michael Savona, the previous agreement was that the borough would pay for one-sixth of all maintenance to the parking garage, including recent maintenance that cost the borough $56,000.

Savona said that representatives for Pulver believed that 55 percent of traffic in the remaining five-sixth of the garage—the second half of the top deck and the remaining decks—comes from the borough and, as a result, billed the borough for that amount of maintenance costs - roughly $240,000.

"Pulver is responsible for the other five-sixths, because he owns the garage," said Savona.  "In our access agreement, there is no condition that we are responsible for anything other than keeping it clean."

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Savona recommended that the borough terminate the lease first.

"If we don't engage in this, what I would say is a lot like extortion, he is going to cancel the lease so that our business can no longer access Two Tower Bridge garage," Savona said.

The body also approved a motion to authorize lease with Keystone Property Group for the same monthly cost, located on the other side of Fayette Street on West First Avenue.

Council President Paul McConnell said that, if municipal parking will now be located across Fayette Street, an emphasis must be made to ensure safety when crossing Fayette at First Avenue.