An investment firm known for buying up newspaper publishers and gutting them is behind the recent shuttering of dozens of Greyhound bus stations across the country, a new report has found.
Twenty Lake Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of Alden Global Capital, bought 33 Greyhound stations in the US from transportation company FirstGroup in 2021, reported Axios.
FirstGroup purchased Greyhound from LaidLaw International in 2007 Reuters. It then sold the bus service to German transportation company FlixBus for $172 million, but retained the physical bus stations until the sale to Twenty Lake.
Since transferring ownership two years ago, Greyhound has closed dozens of central bus stations across the country, either by cutting service entirely or by moving to remote locations as a cost-cutting measure to sell the depots to real estate developers.
The pattern of buying and selling parts mimics how parent company Alden Global Capital gutted local newspapers like the Chicago Tribune.
Twenty Lake Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of Alden Global Capital, purchased 33 Greyhound stations, including the closed Charlottesville depot (photo)
It has been proposed to move the Cleveland Greyhound bus stop (pictured) out of town and turn it into a development
A report from The Atlantic Ocean said of Alden Global Capital, “No one has been more mercenary or less interested in pretending to care about the long-term health of their publications.”
“With aggressive cost-cutting, Alden can keep its newspapers running at a profit for years, while producing an increasingly poor product, indifferent to the subscribers it alienates.”
In 2021, Alden acquired Global Capital Tribune Publishing, acquiring some of the country's largest publications, including the Baltimore Sun and Hartford Courant.
A 2018 report from the University of North Carolina found that Alden-owned publications reduced newsroom staffing by as much as twice the industry average.
Greyhound was founded in 1914 and quickly grew into the largest intercity bus company in the US.
It built hundreds of large modern bus terminals open 24 hours a day with food, toilets and a warm waiting area.
But as demand fell – with passenger numbers falling by a third between 1960 and 1990 and halving again between 1980 and 2006 – and operating costs rose, it became less economically viable to operate them.
Now the closures have been accelerated by the sale of key sites to a real estate investment trust, Twenty Lake Holdings.
In 2021, Greyhound suddenly closed its main station in Charlottesville and moved to an unmarked stop in an Amtrak parking lot with no facilities, leaving shocked passengers standing on the sidewalk in the cold.
An LLC with a mailing address registered to Twenty Lake paid $2.42 million for the property in January, according to property records.
In Cleveland, it has been proposed to move the Greyhound bus station outside the city and turn the historic terminal into a tower apartment complex, a jazz bar, a supper club, an “educational space” and other amenities. Crain's Cleveland Company.
Richmond Bizsense Reported plans have been submitted to turn the Virginia station into a two-building, mixed-use project with a total of 650 apartments.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, the downtown Greyhound station could be closed so a developer can build two towers on the site.
Crain's Chicago Business reported that Twenty Lake Holdings had hired CBRE to sell the bus depot.
Plans have been submitted to convert the station in Richmond, Virginia (pictured) into a mixed-use project with two buildings and a total of 650 apartments
In Chicago, the downtown Greyhound station (pictured) may be closed so a developer can build two towers on the site
Keely Polczynski, senior vice president of CBRE's Chicago office, said the site, which totals about 80,000 square feet, could accommodate a major development.
When a Greyhound terminal in Philadelphia closed and switched to curbside service, passengers had to wait on street corners in the cold and dark.
Similarly, passengers in Cincinnati were left with only a trailer in a suburban parking lot, far from public transportation.
The owner of the old Cincinnati lot now operates it as a parking lot, with plans to sell it to a developer who could turn it into an office or retail site.
In Houston, Greyhound closed its central terminal last month and moved to a smaller stop with less access to public transportation.