From Headlines To Bus Stops: Investment Firm's Real Estate Strategy Takes A New Route

On the surface, bus terminals and newspapers don't seem to have much in common, but a closer look reveals that both occupy valuable real estate a large investment firm finds attractive.

U.K. transportation company FirstGroup purchased Greyhound in 2007. It kept the real estate after it sold the bus service to German bus and rail operator FlixMobility. FirstGroup started selling the bus terminals, primarily in city centers, last year.

Among the buyers of Greyhound terminals is Twenty Lake Holdings, a subsidiary of investment firm Alden Global Capital that is known for buying local newspapers, selling their headquarters and cutting staff, according to a story published by CNN. Alden followed that model with the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, The Baltimore Sun and The Denver Post.

Through Twenty Lake, which purchased 33 Greyhound stations for $140 million in 2021, it's likely to follow a similar pattern, unloading prime real estate in some of the nation's premier markets.

Downtown bus stations in major cities like Houston, Philadelphia and Cincinnati have closed in recent years. A Greyhound station in Chicago is set to close and be redeveloped.

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Greyhound is relocating its stations out of city centers to locations that aren't served by other mass transit or canceling routes altogether. In Philadelphia, for example, Greyhound Intercity bus services like Greyhound, Trailways and Megabus provide transportation between cities. They are estimated to serve more travelers per year than Amtrak. About 60 million people could be at risk of losing access to intercity bus service, according to CNN.

"All this happening at once is really startling," Joseph Schwieterman, a DePaul University professor and director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development, told CNN. "You're taking mobility away from disproportionately low-income and mobility-challenged citizens who don't have other options."

Low-income Americans rely on intercity bus systems to travel between cities, whether it's to jobs or to stay connected with their families. More than 25% of bus riders could be affected by service interruptions, according to surveys conducted by Midwestern governments and reviewed by DePaul University.

Greyhound works to "actively engage with local stakeholders to emphasize the importance of supporting affordable and equitable intercity bus travel," a spokesperson for the bus operator told CNN.

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