New GRTC Facility Coming to Southside
Mayor Dwight Jones and Council President Kathy Graziano tour the new GRTC facility on E. Belt Boulevard. GRTC Transit System is moving from the Fan District of Richmond, where it has been for more than 100 years. GRTC Transit System’s new state-of-the-art Corporate Headquarters/Bus Maintenance Facility will open Monday, December 7, 2009, at 301 East Belt Boulevard, on Richmond’s Southside.
Conceptual plans for the new facility date back to 2001, with construction starting in 2008. Having been housed on a smaller site with buildings up to 105 years old has made the management team greatly aware of the need to provide an environmentally sound and energy efficient work site for the 572 GRTC employees, as well as the Greater Richmond community.
The new Administration wing is approximately 24,000 sq. ft., with the Operations/ Maintenance area triple that size. The facility will house transportation and administration, bus maintenance, service and inspection lanes, bus storage, and various support activities. The site is a total of 12 acres. The move will start with various administration departments December 4, 2009, all remaining departments will be relocated by the end of January, 2010.
The new GRTC facility is cost effective, functional, and aesthetically pleasing. It utilizes “green building” (LEED) practices. LEED Silver Certification is unusual for transit facilities. GRTC Transit System is the primary mass transit carrier in the Richmond region.
GRTC is a non-profit public service corporation that was created by the City of Richmond and incorporated on April 12, 1973. GRTC operates an active fleet made up of 176 transit vehicles, 60 CARE vans and 21 C-VAN vans. The geographic region GRTC operates in consists of 41 routes and over 9 million passenger rides. RideFinders, the ride share component of the transit system, provides assistance to 869 car pools and 39 van pools.
The pictures and commentary above were contributed by David Hathcock. RTD has an article as well.
Does anyone know when GRTC will be moving out of the Fan headquarters and how long it’s planned to sit empty? I live across the street from it and would like to see it unoccupied for as short a period as possible. It’s a huge facility and I can only envision bad things going on in it if it’s unoccupied for an extended period of time.
From the post, “The move will start with various administration departments December 4, 2009, all remaining departments will be relocated by the end of January, 2010.” So I assume that it will be completely empty sometime next month.
The news RTD article states, “The shift will free up the GRTC’s longtime home at 101 S. Davis Ave. near the Fan. City officials have expressed interest in acquiring the property for eventual private development, but Lewis said GRTC’s board of directors has made no decision.
“The quicker we can bring that to a close, the better it’ll be from a cost standpoint,” he said.”