Roundhouse Redevelopment Could Put An End To Philly Bus Passengers Languishing Under I-95
Philadelphia has been without a proper intercity bus station for almost two years, but that could change if one transportation executive gets his way.
Peter Pan CEO Peter Picknelly wants to buy the Roundhouse, the former Philadelphia Police Department headquarters at Race and Eighth streets, and repurpose it as a bus stop.
“I’ll develop it for you,” he said during a Wednesday city council meeting about the bus station issue, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. “I’ll buy it, I’ll pay for it and lease it back to the city — and I’ll get it done quick.”
Since Greyhound suddenly ended the lease at its longtime Filbert Street station in June 2023, the company and its intercity competitors have been picking Philadelphia passengers up at outdoor curbs exposed to the elements.
The first ad hoc stop was at Sixth and Market Streets, but officials put the kibosh on that a few months later due to the congestion it created. Buses now pick up passengers on Spring Garden Street under Interstate 95.
Lawmakers pressed for more details about plans for a permanent bus stop Wednesday but got few solid answers.
The city has analyzed 120 locations and narrowed its list down to six, Philadelphia Deputy Director for Development Services John Mondlak said, according to Billy Penn.
While he didn’t share any of those locations, Mondlak said they’re all at least 7,000 SF, near a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority stop and able to accommodate a bus-turning radius.
Officials want a new permanent station up and running by next summer when tourists will flock to Philadelphia for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and six World Cup games.
They plan to have traffic studies for each of the six sites complete by early this summer and start the community engagement process in the fall, Mondlak said.
The Roundhouse was vacated by the police department in 2021. It’s a notable piece of 20th-century brutalist architecture, but last November the Philadelphia Historical Commission declined to designate the structure as a landmark, which would have prevented it from being razed.
“I wouldn’t say [a bus station is] the highest and best use, but it’s better than demolition, and it would offer a new purpose for the property,” Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia Executive Director Paul Steinke said at the Wednesday meeting.
The lot has space for new construction, and the upper floors of the building could be repurposed as a budget hotel. But Steinke also said the parking lots around the Roundhouse may not be strong enough to support bus traffic.
