It’s been nearly four years since any bus passengers were picked up at the low, brick building near the corner of a busy intersection in downtown Charlottesville. But signs of life may soon return to the former Greyhound station at 310 W. Main St.
Local real estate developer Woodard Properties, via a limited liability company called Renaissance Investments, purchased the half-acre property for $1.5 million "as an investment," according to a July 9 statement from brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, which represented both parties in the deal.
Woodard Properties CEO Anthony Woodard confirmed the recent acquisition with The Daily Progress. As for now, Woodard doesn’t “have any firm plans” for the property, he said.
“It was a unique opportunity in a great location, in a tremendous city,” Woodard said in an email.
The 7,800-square-foot bus terminal constructed in 1945 was closed in February 2021. At the time, Dallas-based Greyhound faced a nearly 80% reduction in ridership amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Charlottesville station — as well as those in Fredericksburg, Williamsburg, Roanoke, South Hill and Springfield — were closed in an attempt to reduce expenses, the company said.
For months after the building was shuttered, Greyhound passengers purchased tickets online and waited for their ride on the sidewalk along Ridge Street. Then, in early November 2021, the Greyhound stop was relocated from outside the old station to the parking lot of Charlottesville Union Station, a half-mile down West Main Street.
Greyhound bought the Charlottesville property in 1987 for $455,000. In 2007, the company was acquired by Scotland-based transportation firm FirstGroup. FirstGroup took over the Charlottesville station for $315,000 in 2021, according to city real estate records. That same year, FirstGroup sold its U.S. Greyhound bus lines to FlixBus, another transportation firm headquartered in Munich, Germany.
Two years later, a limited liability company by the name of GH Charlottesville, VA LLC purchased the station for $2.42 million. The address listed for the company in the State Corporation Commission business registry matches real estate investment and management firm Twenty Lake Holdings in Stamford, Connecticut.
That LLC ultimately sold the former Greyhound terminal to Woodard for $1.5 million. The total value of the property was last assessed at $2.1 million, according to city records.
Woodard Properties maintains a considerable portfolio of commercial and residential assets across the Charlottesville area, including the McIntire Plaza mixed-use development, the First & Main apartments on the city’s Downtown Mall and a handful of housing complexes near the University of Virginia catering to students.
With its proximity to Downtown and UVa, Woodard Properties’ newest asset would be well-situated for residential use. However, developers may be hesitant to take on such time- and cost-intensive projects given the uncertainty surrounding the city’s zoning code.
The citywide rezoning ordinance passed in December 2023 — which intended to increase urban density and boost housing — was recently overturned in court. Charlottesville Judge Claude Worrell granted a default judgement after the city’s lawyers failed to meet a critical deadline in a suit filed by nine residents who claimed the new zoning was a threat to their peace and tranquility as well as the proper functioning of the city.
The decision left many projects, whether in construction or planning, in limbo. To provide some clarity, the city government announced on July 11 that it was still operating under the rezoning ordinance “pending the Circuit Court’s issuance of a formal, written order.”
“The City is currently in talks with the Plaintiffs and their counsel to try to reach an agreeable settlement of this dispute,” reads a city statement. “If those efforts are unsuccessful, the City intends to ask the Court to reconsider its decision and file further appeals if necessary. If those efforts are unsuccessful, the City is prepared to move as quickly as possible to re-adopt the Code.”
All applications for building permits are still being accepted and processed, however, all zoning-related applications have temporarily been placed on hold, according to the city.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com