The Charlotte City Council’s transportation committee on Monday voted unanimously to support a proposal that would rebuild the city’s main bus station underground.
City staff recommended placing the station underground instead of on a second or third floor as part of the new building. Earlier this year, the city presented renderings of the proposed project, in which bus passengers would take a large escalator to the underground bus terminal.
The city plans to partner with developer White Point Partners to build a new mixed-use tower on the site of the Charlotte Transportation Center on Trade Street, atop the new bus station. The tower would have offices, a hotel, retail and possibly a new practice facility for the Charlotte Hornets.
The city hopes that placing the bus station underground will spur development and help create a new entertainment district on Brevard Street. CATS planning director Jason Lawrence told City Council there’s a chance to build more at the bus station and nearby light rail.
"Most of the stations, there’s developments already built around it. The recommendation we feel from a transit perspective must also solve those needs, but it must also support the broader vision as well, and give the most opportunity for a mixed-use development," said Lawrence.
The project would cost nearly $90 million. That's more than the $45 and $55 million to build a new bus station at street level. There's no funding source identified for it yet, and it's unclear exactly how long the project would take to build, though it could open by 2028 or 2029, with a temporary transit center operating for five years during construction.
City staff said the next steps will be to present the plan to the Metropolitan Transit Commission, CATS' other governing board, and work out a more detailed plan for the project's finances and the public-private partnership.
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