Eli Khan, whose name adorns multi-family, industrial, and mixed-use commercial sites across Philadelphia’s affluent western suburbs on the Main Line, plans to present his concept to build 417 housing units on the former J&J/Kenvue site in Skillman at the Monday, September 8 Planning Board meeting.
By Barbara A. Preston | August 28, 2025
After Montgomery officials presented alternative options to including the former J&J/Kenvue site in its state mandated affordable housing plan, the new owner/developer of the site stood up during the public comment session and spoke in favor of his plan on August 25.
Eli A. Kahn of EKahn Development, the new owner of 383 acres on Grandview Road in Skillman, stood up to speak as a member of the audience at the Montgomery Township Affordable Housing Town Hall on August 26. His colleague, Matt Adams, director of leasing/acquisitions for EKahn, is at his left in a matching blazer.
(Photo by Barbara A. Preston)
The air left the room, and utter silence ensued amongst the crowd of residents who had assembled to oppose the plan, as Eli A. Kahn stood and introduced himself.
“I’m president of the EKhan Development Corp. We are the equitable owner of the Kenvue property. We put the Skillman property under agreement in August 2024," he said. “We did so after Kenvue spent a year, (August 2023 to August 2024) internationally marketing the Kenvue campus to big industry, big tech, and anybody who was willing to come in and purchase the facility, take the Kenvue sign down, and put ABC Corp there.
“At the end of the day, nobody wanted it,” he said.
Kahn’s company specializes in redeveloping functionally obsolete properties in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. He said he had presented several plans to Montgomery Township officials over the past year.
He addressed the Montgomery residents at the meeting.
“You folks are upset because you are seeing our plan to put 417 units on 383 acres of land,” he said. "There is now 800,000 square feet of commercial property on this site right now with 1400 parking spaces.
“We thank [Montgomery] Township officials for working with us over the last year to get to what we really thought was a low intensity plan.
“We only ask the public to give us a chance to present the options that are available to development this property before you make a judgement on whether this property is right for 417 units of housing, or anything else. This property is going to get re-developed.”
Eli Kahn's plan calls for 417 homes - a combination of single family, rowhomes, and apartment units. The site would include 70 affordable units and an additional 54 units offsite (as an extension of affordable controls on existing units).
Kahn will appear before the Montgomery Planning board on Monday, September 8 for an “informal review” of his plans to develop the site. This type of review means Kahn will appear before the board and local residents, but it is just to get feedback. No approvals will be granted.
In addition to giving feedback, the planning board may decide to pay an escrow to have the plans reviewed by its professionals (traffic engineer, consulting engineer, and/or the planner.)
Lori Savron, the township administrator and planner, explained that, “It’s a way to create feedback early on in the process.”
From left, Township Administrator Lori Savron with Attorney Wendy Rubinstein Quiroga
Municipal land use law permits developers to have informal reviews prior to the submission of an actual application for planning board approval. If the developer proceeds with his plan to put housing on the Kenvue site, he still will need to seek and obtain zoning variances from the township board of adjustment prior to applying for final approval to build from the planning board.
“There is no zoning [on the Kenvue site] that would support housing on the property right now,” Savron added.
Although Montgomery Township voted in June to include the Kenvue site in its state-mandated affordable housing plan, the site still requires zoning variances. Plus, township officials are seeking alternative sites and options, based on public opposition to putting housing on the Kenvue site.
>> Read related article: "Montgomery Officials Put Kenvue in the Round 4 Affordable Housing Plan, Now Trying to Take It Out"
According to Montgomery’s current zoning, EKahn Development could opt to build a “manufacturing campus,” on the 257-acre Kenvue portion of the property plus 14 single family homes on the north side of Grandview Road.
“We presented this to the Montgomery Township staff. They didn’t like that plan,” Eli Kahn said during the public comment session of the town hall meeting on August 25.
A multi-tenant “manufacturing campus” could include every thing from coffee bean roasters to a catering company or a startup bio-tech companies/lab space, similar to the Princeton Business Park in Rocky Hill on Crescent Avenue, or Flemington Business Park, or Hillsborough Business Center. Some business parks include recreational facilities such as The Little Gym in Hillsborough or the Gravity Vault Indoor Rock Climbing venue in Flemington. Also, small-scale warehouse or storage buildings would be permitted.
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Township Attorney Wendy Rubinstein Quiroga added that Montgomery joined the Local Leaders for Responsible Planning class action lawsuit in June along with 27 other NJ municipalities.
“The suit challenges the way the affordable housing numbers are calculated. If that is to be successful, it would do away with everybody’s plans and we would start all over again.”■
