The Greyhound bus station in North Little Rock will be sold to the city as the bus agency looks to move across the bridge, and North Little Rock officials view the purchase as necessary to control development of the downtown area.
The City Council on Monday night unanimously approved a resolution to purchase the bus station at 118 E. Washington Ave. for $650,000. The bus service will lease the property for up to 12 months after the purchase is agreed upon.
Officials will use $665,000 from the city's General Fund under the special projects section of the budget. The $665,000 figure includes closing costs.
Mayor Terry Hartwick said Monday that it's in the city's best interest to purchase the bus station to ensure appropriate development of the downtown area. He said Greyhound expects to move out of the building before the year lease is completed.
Greyhound Lines Inc. is based out of Dallas with stops in several cities across Arkansas, including Jonesboro, Forrest City, Camden, Van Buren and Fayetteville. City officials said the bus station has been in North Little Rock since 1987.
John Owens, president and chief executive officer of the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, said the bus station has been a major disruption within the area.
"The problem has been the Department of Correction will drop off those who have been convicted and served their sentence at this bus station, and they will hang around and not leave the place," he said. "Also there is a lot of people who don't live in our community who get stranded there for 10 to 12 hours with no shelter or money because of the erratic hours at the bus station.
"It needs to change if we are going to change our downtown area."
Robert Birch, director of development for the city, said he was told the bus service plans to move to Little Rock where 85% of its ridership is located.
"They want to be out of there more than we do because they don't want to pay rent," he said.
Council Member Nathan Hamilton said he wanted to stress that North Little Rock isn't kicking Greyhound out of the city because of the homeless, but rather because the bus service wants out.
"The thing is that downtown North Little Rock isn't set up to handle this kind of thing," Hamilton said.
"Greyhound is looking for a better place that can handle what they want. We are saying, great, you are moving, then we would like to buy it. We aren't saying we don't like the homeless, move them to Little Rock.
"I think it's important our residents know that we aren't kicking anyone out."
This is the latest in a list of projects the city has addressed over the past year in its efforts to revamp the downtown area.
Last year, the City Council established a food truck court and indoor farmers market in the Park Hill area. The enterprise is located at a former automobile service center at 3623 JFK Blvd.
The council also approved an ordinance last year that established an entertainment district downtown in hopes of boosting the city's economy during the covid-19 pandemic.
The Argenta outdoor dining district ordinance allows restaurants, bars and breweries within the entertainment district to sell alcoholic beverages that may be taken out of the establishment and consumed within the district's boundaries between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. daily.
North Little Rock's $5.36 million plaza at 510 Main St. in the Argenta Arts District, known as the Argenta Plaza, is also fully opened.
The plaza opened Nov. 30, 2019, as part of the city's annual Northern Lights Festival, with an estimated 10,000 people taking part in the festivities.