On any given day, thousands of commuters pass through historic rail stations across Southeastern Pennsylvania — architectural gems that once bustled with ticket agents and travelers. Today, many sit vacant and deteriorating — beautiful but neglected relics of an era when rail transit connected the region.

But that state of neglect — thanks to a deal crafted here in Northwest Philadelphia — appears to be changing.

When SEPTA decided to draft 99-year leases for five local regional rail stations with developer Ken Weinstein, it created an innovative new model for how the cash-strapped agency can handle the growing inventory of fallow buildings threaded throughout the region.

Kenneth Starr, SEPTA's manager of Joint Real Estate Development, said, "Especially for the vacant stations that we have in the system, or that have some kind of historic designation and need a decent amount of renovation, we would be looking at a similar kind of structure. We're very motivated."

The reasons are clear. SEPTA, which announced a $213 million budget shortfall as of July 1, faces crushing financial challenges while simultaneously managing a growing portfolio of historic properties that are no longer needed for their original purpose — and are increasingly expensive to maintain. 

A testing ground

The five local stations — Tulpehocken in Germantown; Carpenter, Mt. Airy, and Upsal in Mt. Airy; and Gravers Lane in Chestnut Hill — represent just the beginning. For SEPTA, these leases will become a template for addressing a much larger challenge: what to do with dozens of similar properties.

According to SEPTA documents, the agency currently operates 155 Regional Rail stations (158 counting all terminals at the airport). Of those, only 51 have active ticket-selling capabilities, and that number continues to shrink. Since February 2024, SEPTA closed 24 sales offices — 14 in February and another 10 in September — as contactless payment and digital ticketing have made traditional ticket windows increasingly obsolete.

Eyes on Jenkintown

When news of Weinstein's deal for the five stations in Northwest Philadelphia first broke, he began getting calls from people in communities across the region — all asking whether he would consider renovating their stations too. 

It started with calls from people who live near Northwest Philadelphia's Queen Lane, Chelten Avenue, and Shawmont stations. As word spread, he began hearing from people in Jenkintown, Elkins Park, Rydal, Penllyn, Wyncote, Wallingford, Haverford, Rosemont, and Wynnewood.

Weinstein said, "They were like, 'Oh, we love this idea. Can you please take this one on too?'" 

In principle, Weinstein said, he's interested in all of them.

The Jenkintown station would be first on his list. Situated along the Jenkintown-Wyncote line, this larger station building — which once housed several restaurants that locals still speak of wistfully — has sat vacant for years.

"It's certainly a station that I see a lot of potential in," he said.

Weinstein's vision for the space would build on the fact that it opens right onto the track platform.

"It would depend on what a prospective tenant wanted to use it for, of course, but what I saw as the potential highest and best use is some sort of cafe with a co-working space attached to it. I could see a cafe that is used by both SEPTA riders and co-working tenants being very successful."

According to Starr, the Jenkintown station is the reason he began to consider the kind of deal he's now working out with Weinstein. It's where he realized the significant investment — and expertise — required to restore such a property.

"We had received interest in that site, and it was conversations like that one that led us to pursuing this different structure," Starr said. "It requires a decent slug of money to get it into a shape where a tenant could come in. So, when we looked at other opportunities for that space, whether it was another restaurant or something else, we all realized that a standard lease of 5, 10, or even the max of 29 years just didn't work."

Why 99 years makes sense

What makes the new lease structure so revolutionary is the 99-year term — a first for SEPTA, and crucial to making these projects financially viable.

Starr said previous attempts to lease the stations under shorter terms failed to attract viable bids because the shorter timeline made it "impossible" for developers to recoup their substantial investment.

The economics are straightforward but challenging. All five stations are listed on either the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places or the National Register of Historic Places. This means renovations must meet preservation requirements, making renovation costs "prohibitive," according to Starr. 

Weinstein's company, Philly Office Retail, plans to invest approximately $1.5 million in renovating all five. SEPTA estimated it would cost the agency nearly $4 million to perform the same renovations, due to differences in how public agencies and private developers operate.

Starr said, "There's just, I guess basically, the efficiencies that Ken can get in the private sector, where he's taking a bundle of pretty similar buildings and using economies of scale that drives the price down. We don't have that same ability. "

In exchange for assuming these substantial renovation costs, Weinstein's company will pay just $1 per year to lease each of the five stations. 

While such a low price tag might raise eyebrows, the math works overwhelmingly in SEPTA's favor. According to agency documents, the deal will save approximately $150,000 annually in maintenance costs — an estimated $30,000 per station. If one includes the nearly $4 million that SEPTA estimates it would cost to renovate the buildings itself, the total savings over the 99-year lease term is projected to be $19 million.

Finally, getting the stations back into commercial use can help the transit agency attract customers. 

“Having an activated space, ideally, will drive ridership as well,” Starr said. “Coming to and from a place that has something in it rather than one that doesn’t can really make a difference. And we are not going to have to carry that burden."

A local deal that leads the way

According to Jennifer Dougherty, SEPTA's manager of long-range planning, the agency appears to be in the forefront nationally with this type of approach. While other transit systems have tackled the redevelopment of large, landmark buildings associated with their rail lines, she said, they're generally not looking at their networks of smaller stations in the same comprehensive way.

Dougherty said, "I know that New Jersey Transit has some buildings. They have a pretty good smattering of buildings, both from the Pennsylvania Railroad and from Lackawanna, but I don't think they're really approaching it the same way we do." 

"Now those buildings aren't even needed for selling tickets," Dougherty said, noting that stations like the one in Maplewood, New Jersey "used to have a concierge that ran out of the station building who would do things like pick up and drop off your dry cleaning."

What makes SEPTA's network of regional lines and buildings particularly valuable, Dougherty said, is the way they connect various communities throughout the entire southeastern Pennsylvania region. Many of these towns formed around a transit hub. As a result, about 45 percent of people living within the five-county area reside within half a mile of rail transit or high-frequency bus routes.

Investing in these properties has the potential to have a big impact, and the strategy extends beyond vacant station buildings. In Swarthmore, for instance, where the college currently rents the rail station building, SEPTA is considering whether to cancel their lease as part of a larger plan to redevelop the surrounding parking lot.

The community has “a historic station building there, which is currently leased to the college. There are questions about whether that should be a retail use that ties into the larger project that we're thinking about," Dougherty said.

And that's just one of many possible opportunities for SEPTA to bring new energy into a community through transit-oriented development.

Dougherty said, "We really are talking about enhancing what's already in communities, and building on the character that currently exists."

Why Weinstein is the right partner

According to Starr, finding a local partner with a track record like Weinstein's is what makes it all work.

"We're interested in putting these buildings into the hands of somebody who's going to be the best custodian for it and who has the community in mind," Starr said.

Weinstein isn't new to the station renovation business. His company currently operates the Richard Allen Lane station under a 29-year lease agreement, with High Point coffee shop on the ground floor and a residential apartment above. It’s  a model that has proven successful.

This experience, along with Weinstein's substantial investments in both Mt. Airy and Germantown, made him a natural partner.  His proposal emerged from a competitive bidding process that began when SEPTA's board authorized a Finding of Special Opportunity in July 2023. The FOSO process, established in 1994, allows SEPTA to negotiate terms directly with developers rather than going through traditional low-bid procurement.

Looking ahead

For Weinstein, the work begins as soon as leases are signed,  which he expects to happen any day. After that, it will take at least 18 months to get the five stations renovated and ready for use. Architectural plans must be drawn up, historic tax credits must be applied for, and building permits must be approved before construction can start.

"All five of these buildings are in fair to poor condition and need complete restoration," Weinstein said. 

His immediate plan is to invite the community inside. "We're excited to be able to open them up, and let both the community and potential tenants inside to take a look, and start to dream with us. We see the community as a great resource for finding the right tenants."

For anyone wondering what may become of this deal should the agency be forced to cut more services and potentially close the regional rail lines, SEPTA spokesperson Kelly Greene said these leases would not be affected. 

"One of the things that was made clear by Philly Office Retail and Ken Weinstein is that they see these sites as community-facing and a community benefit, not just an asset to the SEPTA rider," she said. Weinstein's proposal would develop the stations "for the benefit of the surrounding neighbors, and allow them to become community spaces not just reliant on ridership."

For both SEPTA and the communities it serves, that's a significant shift in how these historic properties are viewed: not just as transit infrastructure, but as vital community assets worth preserving and reimagining for generations to come.