Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration plans to buy and rehabilitate Chicago’s downtown bus station, a Johnson spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.
Johnson’s team champions the plan to take over and fix up the terminal as a needed bid to save the low-cost transportation method’s viability in the city. But the $50 million move came as a surprise to Ald. Bill Conway, whose ward includes the location.
“I think that trying to do it in the dead of night shows, really shows the lack of collaboration that this administration continues to show,” Conway said.
Conway, 34th, said he first learned of the planned purchase Monday while reviewing a list of planned tax increment financing expenditures for his ward.
According to the report he showed the Tribune at City Hall Wednesday evening, Johnson’s administration plans to use $35 million next year and another $15 million in 2027 to purchase and rehabilitate the building.
Johnson spokesperson Cassio Mendoza said Wednesday the city expects to spend just north of $19 million to purchase the property, with the rest of the funds expected to go to refurbishment. The city will assess whether the site has structural problems or only needs cosmetic work done, he said.
Tax increment financing district proceeds are held separately from the city’s coffers, and the booming districts in and around downtown usually raise the most money as property values in those areas rise rapidly. Progressives have long derided as mayoral slush funds the so-called “TIFs” that pull in property tax revenue that would otherwise go to the city, schools, county and parks.
The facility is currently owned by Twenty Lake Holdings, the real estate division of private equity firm Alden Global Capital. Alden also owns the Chicago Tribune through its Media News Group subsidiary.
Twenty Lake did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.
The station’s future — and the future of intercity buses in Chicago — have hung in limbo since August 2024, when the long-term lease for Flix, the company that owns Greyhound, ended at the building. The company has been on a month-to-month lease ever since.
Flix did not answer questions about the reported sale plans.
With the terminal’s future uncertain, fears have lingered that Chicago could become the largest city in the Northern Hemisphere without an intercity bus terminal.
Mendoza called Greyhound “the most economical form of intercity transport.” Many of the people who use the buses are low-income, disabled and unemployed, he said.
“The Johnson administration made the decision to purchase the station using TIF dollars to ensure it will continue to serve as a transportation hub,” Mendoza said.
He wrote that the purchase is in the “initial phase” and said additional bus lines are expected to eventually come to the terminal. The alternative to purchasing would have been bus riders being picked up curbside, Mendoza said.
“We have seen that this method has been dysfunctional in other cities, which has already led some cities to reverse course,” he said, adding the practice would be nonviable in Chicago’s harsh winters.
Conway said he does not yet have a position on the measure, which he said will require approval in the City Council. He said he does not yet have enough information and has largely learned about developments in the plan through the media, which he argued raises red flags.
“I am concerned that here we are for a second year in a row where this mayor is raising fines and fees on the working people of this city and finds it appropriate to give $20 million to a private equity firm,” Conway said.
“$30 million to rehab a station that’s already in existence, at a time when the city’s in financial straits, seems like a lot,” he added. “But I haven’t seen what the plan is yet, so I don’t want to totally prejudge it.”
Conway added that Johnson is “sorely mistaken” if the mayor believes he can spend $50 million “of taxpayer money” without first getting City Council approval.
Jake Sheridan, Talia Soglin
Source link