After more than six decades Downtown at 10 N. Pearl St., the Greyhound Intercity Bus Terminal is preparing to move to a new home seven blocks west near the Prime Osborn Convention Center.
The move will bring Greyhound to the Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s new hub that will unite national, regional and city bus service, the Skyway and offer access to nearby Interstate 95.
The Greyhound terminal at 1111 W. Forsyth St. is the first phase of JTA’s $57.3 million Regional Transportation Center project, funded from federal, state and local sources.
Andy Rodgers, JTA project administrator, said Wednesday the 9,660-square-foot facility was on budget and on schedule. It broke ground a year ago.
Rodgers said JTA owns the building and will lease it to Greyhound Lines Inc., which plans to occupy the facility April 17.
The facility also will serve Megabus and RedCoach bus services.
Balfour Beatty Construction LLC is the general contractor.
In December, Lanesha Gipson, spokeswoman for Greyhound Lines, said the facility “will greatly enhance the experience for our customers and allow travelers to have seamless connectivity to various modes of transportation.”
Pond & Co. and Michael Baker International won the design competition for the Regional Transportation Center in April 2016.
Brad Rhodes, project architect with Pond & Co., said the Greyhound facility features the company’s latest floorplan design with nine bus bays, customer drop-off, ticket and customer service counter, indoor waiting area and a restaurant that will be operated by the same vendor as at the existing station.
The Greyhound station’s exterior is designed for Jacksonville. It is a pre-engineered metal building designed to achieve the Silver certification of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for environmental performance of a building for sustainable design.
The building features preinsulated metal panels, canopies and screening, special window glazing, LED lighting and reflective concrete.
The Greyhound terminal will be connected to surface parking across Stuart Street to the west by a steel pedestrian bridge that also connects over West Forsyth Street to the second phase of the Regional Transportation Center.
Rodgers said the second phase, scheduled for completion by January 2020, will be a five-story, 40,000-square-foot administration building with the main intermodal transit station hub.
The main hub now is the Rosa Parks Transit Station at 201 W. Union St.
The design will include a single continuous bus platform for safety, which prevents customers from crossing bus travel lanes as they do at the Rosa Parks station.
The Rosa Parks station services will become similar to the stations at Regency Square Mall and Gateway Town Center, according to JTA Public Relations Manager Leigh Ann Rassler.
The second phase of the Regional Transportation Center will house JTA’s administrative offices with a boardroom and conference rooms.
Staff will relocate from offices at 121 W. Forsyth St.
Offices also will house dispatching and transit operations.
The current Greyhound station property, built in 1956, was sold in December to Miami-based property investor Ramon Llorens, under AK Pearl LLC, for $2.78 million.
Llorens also owns EverBank Center at 301 W. Bay St.
Llorens has not responded to attempts to reach him about the intended use of the former Greyhound property.
