Real estate empire that revitalized the borough

The Riverwalk at Millennium complex along the Schuylkill belongs to a real estate empire J. Brian O'Neill built over two decades, often turning old industrial properties into trendy offices and apartments.

O'Neill had sold the Riverwalk itself two years ago. But he still owned and was developing the adjacent property where the fire started, called the Stables at Millennium. The complex under construction was scheduled to open in winter 2009 and was to include high-end corporate residences called The Luxion.

The Riverwalk project was at the center of the revitalization of Conshohocken, once a factory town on a dirty river that now gleams with rows of high-rise office buildings.

"It was an eyesore before this," said Vivian Angelucci, a member and past chairman of the Conshohocken Zoning Board, who lives two blocks from the Riverwalk development.

She credited it with bringing more residents and businesspeople into the borough.

Riverwalk at Millennium is an upscale, 60-acre apartment community built between 2000 and 2005 by O'Neill Properties Group L.P., of King of Prussia. The $51.8 million project was built on a former industrial site along the Schuylkill, according to a Web site for the complex.

The first apartments in the 375-unit complex were rented in May 2005. The buildings include a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom loft apartments, ranging from 684 square feet to 1,300 square feet and featuring nine-foot ceilings, oversize six-foot windows, walk-in closets, and underground parking.

O'Neill sold Riverwalk at Millennium for about $87.5 million to JPMorgan Chase & Co., according to a 2006 news release.

Riverwalk exemplified projects by O'Neill, who has gone from living in his car as a teenager, according to Philadelphia magazine, to now claiming to be the biggest private developer in the Philadelphia region.

In 1989, with his brother, Michael, he converted the Lee Tire Factory in Conshohocken into Lee Park, an office and light-industrial complex. The transformation spurred overhauls of similar properties, many of them also developed by O'Neill.

He quickly expanded his holdings, developing projects in Bala Cynwyd, Valley Forge and Malvern. He turned an abandoned box factory in Cherry Hill into the Woodcrest Corporate Center.

He also bought the golf and sailing Carnegie Abbey Club in Newport, R.I., in 2004 from international resort developer Peter de Savary. As part of that transaction, O'Neill acquired Oakwood, the storied mansion once owned by the Astor family. Oakwood was listed for sale at $10.75 million, according to a February article in the Providence Journal.