A City Council committee on Wednesday approved the purchase of the endangered Greyhound bus station, setting the stage for a full Council vote to create Chicago’s first publicly owned intercity bus terminal.
Wednesday’s vote to endorse buying the South Loop property for $19 million further reduces the chance of Greyhound’s eviction, which would kick thousands passengers, many of them low-income, to the curb.
The move also raises the possibility of a multi-million dollar investment to improve the neglected terminal at 630 W. Harrison St.
“I worry about the continued degradation of this station if we continue to do nothing,” Ald. Bill Conway, whose 34th Ward encompasses the station, told members of the Committee on Housing and Real Estate before the vote.
Conway has hesitated to keep the station at its current location. The terminal has been a hotspot for crime, including the 2022 murder of a Greyhound employee. But on Wednesday Conway said the city could not underestimate the need for an intercity bus terminal, especially one that, for now, is owned by a private investment firm that previously stated it wanted to build a high-rise at the site.
“The alternative of doing nothing is a disastrous one for the people of Chicago,” Conway said.
The sale to the city could close in August if the ordinance is approved by the Council, Julie Hernandez-Tomlin, commissioner of the Department of Fleet and Facility Management, told the committee.
Greyhound would continue operating the station for one year after the sale date while the city finds a third-party to operate and maintain it, she said.
Bus operators would pay rent to use the station, not unlike how the city runs O’Hare and Midway airports, with those funds expected to cover operating expenses, she said.
Nearly 500,000 people used the Greyhound station last year, she said.
The city would begin almost immediately to improve the terminal, built in 1989. Crews would upgrade the heating and air conditioning system by the end of 2027, and security features such as cameras and lightening would be improved, Hernandez-Tomlin said.
After that, the city would identify other potential upgrades, such as accessibility compliance and updated restrooms.
Four members of the 20-person committee voted against the ordinance.
Ald Marty Quinn (13th), called the purchase “not a good deal,” a “colossal risk,” and a potentially poor use of $50 million of tax increment financing district money — something the city may regret when facing a billion-dollar budget gap later this year, he added.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office introduced the ordinance to authorize the purchase of the station from its current owner, Twenty Lakes Holdings, a real estate division of Alden Global Capital, which acquired the property during a sell-off of Greyhound stations in 2022.
The Greyhound terminal came to the brink of eviction in 2024 as its lease was set to expire — but was saved by a last-minute offer of a month-to-month extension.
The new owner had planned to raze the terminal and build a high-rise, but later backed out of those plans and entered negotiations to sell it to the city.
The product of those negotiations became public last year when a $50-million line item to buy the terminal was discovered in Johnson’s proposed budget.
A year earlier, Johnson’s former chief operating officer, John Roberson, had said buying the terminal was unfeasible due to the costs needed to renovate the poorly maintained building. But the city now says finding another location and building a new terminal would be even more expensive.
In February, a city committee moved to expand the Canal/Congress tax increment financing district to include the Greyhound station, allowing for the potential future purchase.