PDO connection issue

Question

For some reason I am having a really difficult time getting my PDO connection to work. I am entering the correct host, username and password that has allowed me to get into the same database, but other tables.

I have my connection setup like the following, other than the actual username, password and db entered in. I have checked it 10x and it is the correct information.

The latest error I have recieved in the error reporting file is this:

[25-Oct-2016 13:22:07 America/Chicago] PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '$servernameCon' (T_VARIABLE)

I have changed localhost to the Dedicated IP Address, which I do not have to do for any other connection on my site, and even doing this still doesn't help.

I am at a loss for what I am doing wrong. Does anyone see anything I am missing?

    $servernameCon = 'localhost';
    $usernameCon = ' ';
    $passwordCon = ' ';

    $con = new PDO('mysql:host='.$servernameCon.';dbname= ', $usernameCon, $passwordCon);
    $con->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);

Before $servernameCon:

ini_set('display_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);
require_once 'core/init.php';

if(Input::exists()) {
    if(Token::check(Input::get('token'))) {

        if(Input::exists()) {
            $validate = new Validate();
            $validation = $validate->check($_POST, array(
                'firstname' => array(
                    'required' => true,
                    'min' => 2,
                    'max' => 50
                ),
                'lastname' => array (
                    'required' => true,
                    'min' => 2,
                    'max' => 50
                ),
                'email' => array (
                    'required' => true,
                    'min' => 2,
                    'max' => 50
                ),
                'phone' => array (
                    'required' => true,
                    'min' => 7,
                    'max' => 12
                ),
                'network' => array (
                    'required' => true
                ),
                'birthday' => array (
                    'required' => true
                ),
                'username' => array(
                    'required' => true,
                    'min' => 4,
                    'max' => 20,
                    'unique' => 'users'
                ),
                'password' => array(
                    'required' => true,
                    'min' => 6
                ),
                'password_again' => array(
                    'required' => true,
                    'matches' => 'password'
                )

            ));
            if($validation->passed()) {
                $user = new User();

                $salt = Hash::salt(32);

                try {

                    $user->create(array(
                        'firstname' => Input::get('firstname'),
                        'lastname' => Input::get('lastname'),
                        'email' => Input::get('email'),
                        'phone' => Input::get('phone'),
                        'network' => Input::get('network'),
                        'birthday' => Input::get('birthday'),
                        'username' => Input::get('username'),
                        'password' => Hash::make(Input::get('password'), $salt),
                        'salt' => $salt,
                        'joined' => date('Y-m-d H:i:s'),
                        'group' => 1
                    ));

                    ($user->lastId);

                    //Add user to posts table
                    if(isset($_POST['submit'])){
                        $id = ( isset( $_SESSION['id'] ) ? $_SESSION['id'] : "" );
                        $user_id = $user->lastId;
                        $posts = 0;
                        $conversations = 0;