Winnipeg's international airport moved one step closer to establishing itself as a national hub for air, rail and road cargo with the official landing of a new bus depot for the airport campus.
Greyhound Canada confirmed Wednesday what has been rumoured for months -- that it is relocating its downtown bus terminal to Richardson International Airport.
Greyhound's Stuart Kendrick unveils plans for the new bus terminal on Wednesday.
It said its Winnipeg operations will be housed in a new $6.3-million complex that will be built on a parking lot immediately east of the existing airport terminal.
The complex will include a 10,000-square-foot passenger terminal and a 10,000-square-foot cargo terminal connected by an overhead canopy, and is to open in mid-August 2009.
Greyhound Canada senior vice-president Stuart Kendrick said Greyhound intends to maintain a presence in the downtown where passengers can be picked up and dropped off. He said it could be at the existing location, or it may be somewhere else in the downtown.
He stressed that the company won't be providing a shuttle service from the airport to downtown. Rather, its regular buses will stop at the downtown location on their way in and out of the city.
Winnipeg Airports Authority president and CEO Barry Rempel told a news conference the new Greyhound depot is another important building block in the WAA's efforts to establish the Winnipeg airport as an international centre of excellence for intermodal transportation services.
He said with the addition of a bus depot, it will become the first intermodal transportation facility in the country and the first Canadian airport with a bus depot on its property.
The Greyhound depot is the second big catch in the last six weeks for the WAA. On Feb. 18, Canada Post announced it would be building a new $50-million mail sorting plant at the airport. That 250,000-square-foot complex is to open in June 2010.
Next on the WAA's wish list is another hotel for the airport and an on-site aircraft maintenance and repair facility to service aircraft using the airport.
Rempel said talks are continuing with Winnipeg's Lakeview Management Inc., which owns and operates the Four Points Sheraton Winnipeg hotel at the airport. Lakeview wants to build another $20-million, 100-room luxury hotel next to the new airport terminal that's under construction, as well as an $8-million, 50,000-square-foot office tower to connect the new hotel to the existing one.
Rempel said WAA officials hope to make a hotel-related announcement within the next two months.
WAA officials have also had preliminary discussions with several aircraft repair and maintenance specialists about the proposed repair facility. Rempel is hoping a deal can be completed within two years.
Other transportation-related developments on the WAA's wish list are the establishment of a new "logistics park" for cargo handlers and the construction of a rail cargo terminal on the western fringe of the airport property.
WAA officials have pitched the rail-cargo-terminal idea to Canadian Pacific Railway, which has several branch lines in the area. However, no talks are being held at the moment.
Kendrick said Greyhound officials looked at several potential downtown sites for the new bus terminal, but couldn't find anything that was the right size or the right price. Then the WAA suggested it build at the airport, and the more they thought about it, the more sense it made.
Kendrick said being at the airport will create new business opportunities for Greyhound. For example, it plans to talk to Canada Post about the possibility of providing parcel-delivery services for the corporation.
An airport location will also enable Greyhound to provide better service to its passengers and cargo customers, he said, noting it has outgrown is site next-door to the University of Winnipeg.
U of W president Lloyd Axworthy told the news conference that Greyhound's departure will allow the university and the other co-owners of the downtown bus depot property and adjoining office building to redevelop the site for other uses.
"It will provide further opportunities for a major development in the downtown and on west Portage Avenue," he said. "We think it's a good decision for all of us."
Axworthy said the partners are considering a variety of redevelopment proposals for the site, but there's no rush to make a decision because Greyhound's lease doesn't expire until Aug. 31, 2009.
murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca
PREVIOUS
