Developer to present Kenview options Sept. 8 as residents press for traffic studies and building preservation

Eli Khan, president of Econ Development Corp., told Montgomery residents he and a partner put the Kenview property under agreement last August and intend to present redevelopment options at the planning-board informal review scheduled for Sept. 8.

"We put the Skillman property under agreement in August of last year," Khan said. "At the end of the day, nobody wanted it." He said his firm specializes in redeveloping functionally obsolete assets and invited residents to a site visit and an informal presentation in the parking lot after the town hall.

Khan acknowledged the 417-unit figure circulating in town hall materials but said that scale was not the only plan his firm had discussed with township staff. "What you guys are looking at, at 417 units, was nowhere in our mind when we first purchased the property," he said, describing alternatives including adaptive reuse as a manufacturing campus.

Residents pressed for detail and transparency. "You're going to build it and leave, we have to stay here and live with it," said Chris Newman, voicing concerns about traffic impacts, emergency services access and neighborhood character. Multiple speakers urged preserving the Kenview building, which residents and the Landmarks Commission described as a work by noted architect I.M. Pei.

Sonia Hunt, a Landmarks Commission member, said she supported affordable housing in principle but worried about locating it on the Kenview site: "It is considered historic... I think many of the people ... it's more the idea of the location and the traffic," she said.

Staff and committee members responded that several plans — industrial (as-of-right), mixed-use and all-residential — had been presented previously and are posted with the prior town-hall materials; they encouraged residents to review those materials and to attend Sept. 8. Planning staff said any technical studies submitted so far (traffic, sewer, stormwater) have come from the developer and that municipal engineers would conduct independent reviews if a formal application is filed.

The meeting recorded strong local interest and multiple questions about notice and process. Staff clarified that Kenview's sale or option arrangements are the owner's right and that the township cannot prevent the property owner from marketing their land, though future approvals would require public hearings.

Next steps: an informal review at the planning-board meeting on Sept. 8 was announced; town staff asked residents to attend, review posted materials and expect independent municipal review of any formal applications.