The main Chicago Greyhound bus station at 630 W Harrison Street in the Near West Side has been put up for sale for redevelopment. Located on the corner with S Jefferson Street near downtown, it is bound on the north and west sides by the newly redesigned circle interchange and is one of multiple Greyhound stops in the city. After switching hands a few times in the last years, the site has now been listed by Texas-based CBRE in a move that similarly led to the sale of the Greyhound facility where Halsted Pointe is set to rise.
Previous downtown station from 1953 to 1990 via Connecting the Windy City
Greyhound was founded in 1914 in nearby Minnesota where it almost didn’t survive its first year due to the snow, eventually it relocated to Chicago in 1930 where it rapidly expanded before eventually buying the Dial Soap corporation. Greyhound has since become the largest intercity bus service in the nation, with its operations being sold in 2021 to German-based Flixbus for $170 million from British-based FirstGroup who bought it for $3.6 billion in 2007.
Site map of Greyhound station via Google Maps
The roughly 88,000-square-foot site has held the large one-story station since 1989, being bought along with 32 other Greyhound properties by Chicago Tribune-owned Twenty Lakes Holdings for $140 million in 2021 separately. With 55 daily departures and on average 500,000 passengers per year, it serves more people than Rockford International Airport to destinations like New York and more. CBRE is marketing the site to be potentially replaced by a two-tower residential development near focal points like the Old Post Office.
Interior image of current Greyhound station via South Side Weekly
The current terminal serves as a transfer hub with a study from the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development finding that many passengers spend up to eight hours there. Its potential closure would disproportionately affect younger and people of lower income, especially if forced to wait outside with curbside pick-up similar to much smaller stops. Greyhound is currently in the search for a new permanent home close to downtown, as if it were closed it would leave Chicago as the largest city without a dedicated structure.
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Greyhound should get a deal with Union station to have a pick up drop off around it and people can wait and transfer to trains all in one place. Hopefully that’s what they’re going to do, no one needs separate bus terminal away from the rest of transit.
Agree. Multimodal is the way to go.
Brilliant Idea why didn’t Lori think of this she sure would have received the bus users vote
Hey Max! other bus services do pick-up from Union but are mostly curbside, I want to say the 55-daily departures is the largest hurdle when it comes to new space.
Greyhound does that right now and has been for that past year or so. They pick up passengers and shuttle them to the Greyhound terminal before heading to their destination. I work for CoachUSA who also picks up passengers at Union Station along with Greyhound daily.
The bike lanes on Harrison are frequently blocked by multiple parked/waiting cars. If getting rid of the Greyhound station will also get rid of those cars I’m all for it.
Seems like there must be a more practical solution to your bike lane problem than taking away a transit hub that serves 500,000 travelers every year.
Bought for 3.6 billion , sold for 46 million . Terrible writing .
The Tribune owns 34 Greyhound properties ? Explain please .
Terribly written , could Jack rewrite coherently ?
Hi George,
We posted the Enterprise Evaluation (EV) rather than the lump cash sum of around $170 million with debts, article was corrected. However Greyhound was bought for around 3.6 billion in 2007 by FirstGroup, who sold it to Flixbus in 2021 for the aforementioned price showing the devaluation of the company.
Twenty Lakes, whose parent company is the Chicago Tribune, purchased all but two of Greyhound’s physical properties for $140 million.
Let us know any other concerns, made some slight corrections so it reads a bit better.
Jeez george didn’t know you were a professor in writing chill out d0ucheb@
Build a super tall here
Jus what Chicago needs… another skyscraper to house all the people moving OUT of Chicago… Great idea guys
Who owns that land/lane to the West? It looks like a wide turn lane for buses but just rebuilt as part of interchange??
That land you’re referring to isn’t a part of Greyhound. That’s the Chicago Transit Authority’s newly rebuilt southern bus terminal for its 125 Water Tower Express route. Presumably it will also once again serve as the late evening terminal for the 36 Broadway once the rebuild of the Harrison Street bridge over the Chicago River is complete.
There’s a bus terminal just south of Union Station. Why not find some place around there for Greyhound
More luxury housing for the rich! Yaaaaay!!!
Work in the area. Live in Chicago. Greyhound is affordable transportation & needs iINDOOR HUB for Passengers that has PROVISIONS for DROP-OFF & PICK-UP Harrison is is a Main Thoroughfare.
There are alternate streets you can use to ride your bicycle
Check your facts. The original Greyhound Corporation acquired Armour-Dial in around 1969, not the other way around. In 1987, the Corporation divested the Greyhound Lines bus subsidiary to investors, and changed their name to Dial Corporation for a period.
The bus line changed ownership a few more times since then, until it present owners. In most cases, the real estate was not included in the sale.
Hey Bob! You are corrected on the Dial information and we updated the article, the real estate was indeed sold separately in 2021 to Twenty Lakes