A revived plan to relocate Rochester's intercity bus terminal opens a key development site north of downtown.
It also presents planners who already are working to remove the Inner Loop highway and transform that area with an even bigger opportunity.
“You get a great view of the skyline from that location,” said Erik Frisch, the city’s deputy commissioner for neighborhood and business development. “It encourages you to go from the station into the heart of our community.”
The potential welcome mat — and future development site — amounts to three acres that extends from the Amtrak station to the Inner Loop. It’s where the existing commercial or Trailways bus terminal is today.
That terminal would be demolished, and a new one would be added onto the train station. The sunken highway that some liken to a moat would be replaced with an at-grade thoroughfare, creating even more developable land.
But none quite like those three acres.
“That parcel is very important,” Frisch said, adding later, “It’s exciting, right?”
This was once a grand area, when the New York Central Station dominated Central Avenue. There was a natural flow from downtown to the station and the old U.S. Post Office nearby — until a half-century ago.
That’s when the Inner Loop was carved out of this part of the city. It was one of the first such arterial highways constructed in the U.S., ostensibly to relieve downtown traffic congestion but with devastating impacts on largely minority neighborhoods and the urban fabric. The postal building still stands, split off from downtown for the last half-century by the Inner Loop, with a truncated Schiller Park on the other side.
"And so, thinking about bringing back some of that grandeur in redevelopment would certainly be something that we would have to consider,” Frisch said.
Planning for removal of the 1.5-mile Inner Loop stretch between Interstate 490 and East Main/Union streets got underway several years ago. The bus terminal property was “certainly aspired for,” Frisch said. “It was hoped for. It was a logical thing.” But it was not part of the planning, until now.
It will be, though, when a city-led study kicks off this summer that aims to refine the vision for what the northern edge of downtown will look like once the $100 million project is complete. Officials hope it will reconnect the street network and the neighborhoods, while developing a seamless transition into the center city.
“We've got to think about everything at the same time,” Frisch said. “How these parcels get developed, but also how they're served by and for bicyclists, pedestrians, as well as drivers and transit.”
This year’s state budget includes $18 million for a new bus terminal. The current station was intended to be temporary when it opened 12 years ago.
Plans for an intermodal station, with a new bus terminal extending from the east side of the train station, were part of the original planning for that facility. But the Louise M. Slaughter Station opened in 2017 without it.
Today the various bus companies serving Rochester are fragmented, with Trailways at the terminal and others on street.
"This will enable us to have one centralized location," Frisch said of a new terminal, "making it clear where you can get your bus to whatever the destination is, as well as for those who might be making a connection between one of those buses and Amtrak.”
Officials estimate 300,000 people travel to and from Rochester by bus and train each year.
“First impressions are everything,” state Sen. Jeremy Cooney, D-Rochester, said in a news release announcing the bus terminal funding, adding: “Our current long-distance bus station has done us no favors with travelers coming into our city.”
New York state will oversee design of the station expansion. That construction and the removal of the Inner Loop, could happen at the same time but both remain several years off. The goal is to complete design on the Inner Loop removal and begin construction in spring 2027.
“If at the end of this ... you can't even feel that that expressway was there, then I know that we've done our job,” Frisch said.
