A venerable bus company founded in Springfield, Massachusetts is moving its corporate headquarters to the city’s Union Station, which is rapidly filling with tenants less than a year after it was restored and reopened.
Peter Pan Bus Company has signed a lease to occupy the entire third floor of the redeveloped transportation hub in a move that will bring 100 jobs to Union Station and again place the company’s administrative offices and its bus passenger operations under one roof.
Peter Picknelly, the president and CEO of Peter Pan, made the announcement Monday in the grand concourse of Union Station.
" Union Station is a beautiful building. It is the transportation center for downtown Springfield, and Peter Pan being the leading provider of transportation in and out of the city had to be here," said Picknelly.
The move means Peter Pan will sell the building on Main Street in downtown Springfield where its corporate offices have been located since 1969 and up until a few months ago was the city’s intercity passenger bus terminal.
Peter Pan moved its ticket counter and bus operations to Union Station on September 6th and expects to be in its new office space on the third floor this spring.
The five-year lease calls for Peter Pan to pay a total of $1.6 million, which will be put toward meeting the operating expenses of Union Station, according to Springfield Chief Economic Development Officer Kevin Kennedy.
" We are shooting for 100 percent coverage of the operating expenses, but buildings like this in the short term take a while to cover all operating expenses, " said Kennedy. " We are doing well but we have to stay at it."
Sixty-five percent of the 81,000 square feet of space available for rent at Union Station is now leased.
" Anybody in the real estate business will tell you that renting 65 percent of the space in such a short time is excellent," said Kennedy.
The ground floor retail space at Union Station is occupied by a Dunkin Donuts, a Subway restaurant, a convenience store, and several kiosks.
An architectural firm has 8,000 square feet of office space on one of the upper floors.
Built in 1926 and closed in the 1970s, Union Station reopened last June after a three-year $95 million restoration, championed by Congressman Richard Neal, who on Monday thanked Picknelly for his support of the project.
" I am delighted with this announcement," said Neal. " It is a demonstration of great faith by those of us who were stakeholders. We envisioned this moment and have now seen it come to fulfillment."
Neal said space at Union Station is also available to be rented for functions.
The Springfield Redevelopment Authority owns the building.
