Peter Pan CEO offers to turn Roundhouse into a bus terminal depot

The chief executive of Peter Pan Bus Lines on Wednesday offered to buy the abandoned Roundhouse police headquarters on Race Street and turn it into a new intercity bus terminal for Philadelphia.

“I also like the old police station … and I’ll develop it for you,” Peter A. Picknelly, chairman and CEO of the family-owned company, said at a City Council hearing focused on the need for a station with shelter and off-road loading and unloading.

“I’ll buy it, I’ll pay for it, and lease it back to the city — and I’ll get it done quick,“ he said.

Philadelphia’s inability to find a terminal for intercity bus passengers has been a civic embarrassment since Greyhound abruptly ended the lease on its longtime Filbert Street station in June 2023.

Currently, intercity bus lines pick up passengers near Spring Garden Street and Delaware Avenue, where there’s little shelter and portable restrooms.

Council convened a nearly three-hour hearing Wednesday to press city officials for details on efforts to locate a permanent intercity bus station and an intermediate facility with space for a terminal and bus bays.

Administration representatives provided few answers.

The Roundhouse has been considered as a possible bus station at least since former Mayor Michael Nutter’s administration (2008-2016).

“I wouldn’t say it’s the highest and best use, but it’s better than demolition, and it would offer a new purpose for the property,” said Paul Steinke, executive director of the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Historical Commission last November declined to designate the headquarters as a landmark, which could have preserved it from demolition.

Steinke said that there is enough land around the building for new construction. The Preservation Alliance has studied the possibility of using the first floor of the building for a terminal, with the upper floors perhaps housing a budget tourist hotel.

However, Steinke said he has heard concerns from city engineers that the surface parking lots around the Roundhouse might not be strong enough to support bus traffic.

The former police headquarters has been empty since 2021, and there’s been no consensus on what to do with the historically significant example of Brutalist architecture, which also has negative connotations for people who have experienced police brutality.

So far the city has not solicited proposals for redevelopment. “It seems to be in limbo,” Steinke said.

John Mondlak, the first deputy chief of staff of the city planning department, said it’s difficult to estimate how long it might take to establish a permanent intercity bus station.

“Some sites will likely require much more investment in infrastructure, and it’s going to be years,” Mondlak said. “This is not a normal development project.”

Planning staff initially identified 120 sites that could work for an intercity station, and then narrowed those down to six possible locations, Mondlak told Council members.

A consultant is currently conducting traffic studies for each site, he said, declining to identify them. That work is expected to be done in the summer, and community outreach on an interim station could start in the fall, Mondlak said.

» READ MORE: Architecture critic Inga Saffron suggests six possible sites

The uncertainty sparked frustration.

“I’m used to the city of Philadelphia always looking at and investigating things, but I’m not used to the city having a strong timeline on when they share their findings … or when execution should begin,” Councilmember Anthony Phillips said.

Spring Garden is a “dreadful site,” said David Brownlee, vice chair of the Design Advocacy Group and an emeritus professor of architectural history at the University of Pennsylvania.

Siting at least an interim location “is an enormously urgent problem that we have to face well before next spring,” Brownlee said. “I think we are all somewhat discomforted by the pace that’s been laid out by our planning officials.”

First, the city permitted Greyhound, FlixBus, and Peter Pan to dock curbside along Market Street near Seventh Street, with passengers queuing up on the sidewalks. They had no shelter, no amenities and no ready information on arrival and departure times. That lasted five months.

Now, buses operate for several blocks around Spring Garden Street and Delaware Avenue, with passengers huddling beneath the I-95 overpass near the entrance to a SEPTA El station. There are temporary restrooms in trailers, a tiny ticket office that can hold 10 people, and no other places to sit.

The Spring Garden curbside operation opened just before Thanksgiving 2023. It was intended to be temporary.

The city was forced into an almost impossible situation based on the business model in the intercity bus industry, which has been shedding real estate and other assets to cut costs.