4-story apartment building may rise downtown at Greyhound bus station
A local developer has confirmed plans to demolish and replace Bakersfield’s Greyhound station with a four-story apartment building, giving downtown its second high-density housing project in recent decades and likely nudging the bus terminal a mile east onto a city-owned spot next to the Amtrak station.
Kern County property records show the 20,850-square-foot, 60-year-old bus station property sold in mid-July for $1.27 million to Church Plaza LLC, whose officers include Majid Mojibi, president of San Joaquin Refining Co. Inc. in northwest Bakersfield.
Mojibi’s son Darius said the family’s first residential project following industrial and commercial developments will have roughly 100 market-rate rentals. He said the idea is to build on revitalization momentum from the nearby Padre Hotel and tech hub Bitwise Industries.
One option includes a groundfloor storefront and eatery below three floors of one- and two-bedroom configurations, he said. Four floors of strictly apartments is the other option.
“We’re just trying to diversify the portfolio a little more and get into residential,” he said, adding a lodging use was also considered but no one in the family was interested in running a hotel.
City officials have pushed for years to relocate Greyhound and now have the chance. The company’s lease at 1820 18th St. is set to expire at the end of the year
and Darius said lease extensions would give the bus operator up to an additional three months on 18th Street.
Greyhound said it was excited to be working with the city on a relocation near the Amtrak.
“After reviewing the needs of our customers and our business, we have found that co-locating with other forms of area transportation makes for a more seamless transition to other methods of transit,” spokeswoman Crystal Booker said by email.
Bakersfield City Councilman Andrae Gonzales, who represents the area and favors moving the bus station, expressed confidence the city will successfully conclude ongoing negotiations on a lease agreement with Greyhound.
He and City Manager Christian Clegg said separately it makes sense to consolidate the train and bus stations in one area and that high-density residential development is appropriate where Greyhound is now.
“The more people that are living downtown the more we are able to produce a 24-7 downtown,” Gonzales said.
Downtown Bakersfield residential developer Austin Smith, whose family is working on 53 townhome-style rentals at 18th and Q streets after completing 44 units nearby — downtown’s first such development in decades — said Church Plaza’s project looks like an exciting opportunity to make better use of well-located property.
To him the Mojibis’ proposal is continuing progress toward downtown’s revitalization, in which housing has been the last piece missing. He said demand is strong for units at his existing rentals.
“I know that if other projects are built,” he said, “that they’ll do well as well.”