The former Greyhound station in Old Town across the street from Union Station will soon house TriMet buses if a plan to purchase the building goes through. At a meeting this morning of Metro’s Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT), TriMet General Manager Sam Desue announced a plan to reallocate funds currently set aside for zero emission buses and instead use it to purchase the Greyhound building for use as a bus layover facility.
“Due to our current financial situation, where we are reprioritizing the use of these funds,” Desue told fellow members of JPACT. “We currently have more busses that we need for our current operations. However, we’re not taking our foot off the gas regarding zero emission busses and purchases for the future.”
Desue went on to explain that TriMet intends to purchase the two-acre property at 550 NW 6th Avenue and convert it from a Greyhound terminal into a layover facility that can house up to nine, 60-foot spaces for TriMet buses. Currently, TriMet bus operators on the frequent service FX-2 Division Line layover in the transit mall on NW 5th and 6th avenues. TriMet says housing these buses indoors will be safer for operators, spur much-needed urban development in Old Town and satisfy a commitment TriMet made with the City of Portland in 2016 to not use a public street for extended layovers.
At their meeting today, JPACT authorized an amendment to the Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program (MTIP) that reallocates $4.1 million in federal funds previously intended for zero emission bus purchases and adds $7.9 million (a mix of federal and TriMet funds) for a total of $12 million.
According to the Portland Business Journal, the former Greyhound terminal is currently owned by Transportation Realty Income Partners LP, and it listed on the market for $10 million. Greyhound moved out of the building in 2019 and TriMet has had its eye on it ever since. TriMet says they hope to close on the property by this summer.
Below is more information about the proposed sale in email from TriMet just before noon on Thursday:
This is a unique opportunity for TriMet, as the funding strategy to acquire the former Greyhound property as a bus layover site leverages federal funds with the minimum possible investment of TriMet general funds. Given our constrained revenues and more than enough buses needed given our current and future service levels, we are not making this particular electric bus purchase this year.
TriMet is looking to reallocate existing federal funds and grant money to purchase the former Greyhound bus site at 550 Northwest 6th Avenue for a new bus layover facility. The need for additional bus layover space was identified back in 2016, during the planning phase of the Division Transit Project. When the City of Portland adopted the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) for the project, they included a provision, which said that TriMet would work with the City “to identify, plan and design a permanent off-street bus layover facility… near the north terminus of the transit mall.” The resolution gave a timeline of five-years from the Sept. 18, 2022 service launch of the Division Transit Project.
The site at 550 NW 6th Avenue is uniquely suited to TriMet’s needs, as it located next to Union Station; close to TriMet MAX lines and the Steel Bridge; and serves TriMet access and future needs in this part of the city. It includes 2-acres of property on the transit mall, with an existing bus yard. Of the locations TriMet considered for the layover facility, the Greyhound site had the lowest up front capital investment requirements and the greatest long-term flexibility. It will serve buses from across the region; meet an urgent need for additional layover space; and has the opportunity to catalyze development directly adjacent to high capacity transit and Union Station.
The proposed transaction for the site leverages existing federal funds and federal grant monies that are not available for TriMet operations, maintenance or TriMet service, or other agency expenditures. A breakdown of the funding is below.
In addition to the $3.3 Million in federal formula dollars in this MTIP amendment, TriMet will be using $7.9 Million in FTA restricted funds for the purchase of this site. When TriMet sells a piece of property that was purchased with federal funds – a portion of the sale, attributed to federal funds – goes into a dedicated fund that we can only use for purchases like these and attached to other federal dollars like these formula funds.
TriMet’s Board of Directors was briefed on the topic in December, and you can watch that part of the meeting here. As for next steps, we expect our Board of Directors to vote on a Resolution related to the acquisition at their Jan. 28 meeting. We hope to close on the property as soon as this summer.
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Well, a timely reminder of how TRIMET as an organization is difficult to take seriously. Sam Desue acknowledges the “current financial situation” and says the best way to deal with that is to buy property they don’t really need, have done just fine without for years and will cost an unknown amount to “convert into a layover facility”.
Thank goodness they can backfill the money they will spend on the property instead of buses with PCEF funds. Funding is fungible and this is yet another example of why all the city money should just go into a single pot to be drawn from as there seems to be no ability to actually set money for specific reasons or objects.
Also, that seems like a lot of money for a property no one else wants.
There’s basically 2 main types of bus networks: Hub-And-Spoke and Lattice.
Hub-and-spoke is very common in smaller communities whereby there’s a central depot and to get across town you have to transfer at least once – all the buses come into the depot around the same time and you walk within the depot to catch the next bus to your destination. The main advantages to Hub-And-Spoke are that it makes transfers relatively easy and it increases “ridership”; it’s main disadvantage is that it is incredibly inefficient on moving people and it takes forever to get to your destination.
Lattice networks are much more common in major cities that have multiple centers (Houston TX for example), whereby nearly all buses are “crosstown” and to transfer where buses intersect or at multiple depots. Generally you get to your destination faster and the system is more efficient as long as you only need one or fewer transfers. It’s not so great if you need multiple transfers to get to your destination.
Most systems are hybrids of the two, including Trimet’s.
A really good transit system tries to move as many people as possible to their destinations as quickly as possible. However, in the USA, a lot of systems get their funding based on “ridership” which is how many “trips” their passengers take rather than the number of people moved. The more transfers, the more trips taken, and the higher the ridership.
So I can see Trimet looking at this bus depot as an investment into a future of low transit people movement and using it for a Hub-And-Spoke system that basically requires everyone to transfer at least once to get to their final destination in order to inflate reported ridership.
They’re going to use it as a rest/storage spot for 9 buses. That it can be used as something else in the future with more money spent isn’t mentioned. They are cutting routes, not expanding them. If Trimet were capable of making profitable, forward thinking decisions they wouldn’t be in the financial hole they are now so you’ll have to (or not) forgive my disbelief that there is any kind of future plan that pencils out profitably or at least isn’t a black hole of tax money.
Angus Peters
2 hours ago
I hope they got a good deal for taxpayers. Commercial properties are selling at fire sale prices in Portland. Unfortunately I don’t see a lot of fiduciary responsibility from our local government entities.
Large cities with hub-and-spoke transit systems will often have a huge bus shed near the center of the city. Examples include Durham NC, Charlotte NC, and Winston-Salem NC.
Glad to hear that Trimet is taking it over. Would love to see it function again as a regional regional bus hub to connect rural Oregon wit the city. Flix’s ‘leverage buyout’ real estate grab and moving passenger waiting to the curb nationally is a modal / equity travesty. BUT Not sure that a bus parking / layover lot will “spur much-needed urban development in Old Town”..more spin than reality unless this is Trimet land banking this facility for bigger and better things.
Not sure that a bus parking / layover lot will “spur much-needed urban development in Old Town”..more spin than reality
Yes that is a stretch to think that bus storage is going to spur development. Still, compared to it’s current state, this is a large improvement.
maxD
2 hours ago
This seems like a good fit, but a downgrade from its former use as a bus terminal. I do not buy the claim that a bus parking lot will “spur much-needed urban development in Old Town”. It is better than being empty, but only barely.
Harper Haverkamp
58 minutes ago
Please put 20 stories of housing on top + a coffee shop too. Prime location for transit oriented development.
Thanks for reading.
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Well, a timely reminder of how TRIMET as an organization is difficult to take seriously. Sam Desue acknowledges the “current financial situation” and says the best way to deal with that is to buy property they don’t really need, have done just fine without for years and will cost an unknown amount to “convert into a layover facility”.
Thank goodness they can backfill the money they will spend on the property instead of buses with PCEF funds. Funding is fungible and this is yet another example of why all the city money should just go into a single pot to be drawn from as there seems to be no ability to actually set money for specific reasons or objects.
Also, that seems like a lot of money for a property no one else wants.
There’s basically 2 main types of bus networks: Hub-And-Spoke and Lattice.
Hub-and-spoke is very common in smaller communities whereby there’s a central depot and to get across town you have to transfer at least once – all the buses come into the depot around the same time and you walk within the depot to catch the next bus to your destination. The main advantages to Hub-And-Spoke are that it makes transfers relatively easy and it increases “ridership”; it’s main disadvantage is that it is incredibly inefficient on moving people and it takes forever to get to your destination.
Lattice networks are much more common in major cities that have multiple centers (Houston TX for example), whereby nearly all buses are “crosstown” and to transfer where buses intersect or at multiple depots. Generally you get to your destination faster and the system is more efficient as long as you only need one or fewer transfers. It’s not so great if you need multiple transfers to get to your destination.
Most systems are hybrids of the two, including Trimet’s.
A really good transit system tries to move as many people as possible to their destinations as quickly as possible. However, in the USA, a lot of systems get their funding based on “ridership” which is how many “trips” their passengers take rather than the number of people moved. The more transfers, the more trips taken, and the higher the ridership.
So I can see Trimet looking at this bus depot as an investment into a future of low transit people movement and using it for a Hub-And-Spoke system that basically requires everyone to transfer at least once to get to their final destination in order to inflate reported ridership.
They’re going to use it as a rest/storage spot for 9 buses. That it can be used as something else in the future with more money spent isn’t mentioned. They are cutting routes, not expanding them. If Trimet were capable of making profitable, forward thinking decisions they wouldn’t be in the financial hole they are now so you’ll have to (or not) forgive my disbelief that there is any kind of future plan that pencils out profitably or at least isn’t a black hole of tax money.
I hope they got a good deal for taxpayers. Commercial properties are selling at fire sale prices in Portland. Unfortunately I don’t see a lot of fiduciary responsibility from our local government entities.
https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/ritz-carlton-residences-for-sale-portland-oregon/
https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2025/12/portland-office-sales-will-drive-millions-in-property-tax-losses-year-in-review.html?outputType=amp
The HOA in those condos is another whole mortgage
Large cities with hub-and-spoke transit systems will often have a huge bus shed near the center of the city. Examples include Durham NC, Charlotte NC, and Winston-Salem NC.
Glad to hear that Trimet is taking it over. Would love to see it function again as a regional regional bus hub to connect rural Oregon wit the city. Flix’s ‘leverage buyout’ real estate grab and moving passenger waiting to the curb nationally is a modal / equity travesty. BUT Not sure that a bus parking / layover lot will “spur much-needed urban development in Old Town”..more spin than reality unless this is Trimet land banking this facility for bigger and better things.
Yes that is a stretch to think that bus storage is going to spur development. Still, compared to it’s current state, this is a large improvement.
This seems like a good fit, but a downgrade from its former use as a bus terminal. I do not buy the claim that a bus parking lot will “spur much-needed urban development in Old Town”. It is better than being empty, but only barely.
Please put 20 stories of housing on top + a coffee shop too. Prime location for transit oriented development.