The Maryland Transit Administration has agreed to lease a Remington site once slated for a Wal-Mart-anchored shopping development as a temporary bus depot until a new facility under construction at the administration's current location is complete.
The three-year agreement with Seawall Development Co. is scheduled to go before the Board of Public Works in January, according to a letter the MTA sent to public officials.
The MTA plans to add new lockers, bathrooms and a fueling station to the site, at Huntingdon Avenue and Howard Street. The private bus company City Wide Bus Co. currently uses part of that space but is planning to move to a different location, said City Councilman Carl Stokes.
The site had been slated for redevelopment as a Wal-Mart-anchored shopping center called 25th Street Station. Those plans fell apart this summer after the original developer, WV Urban Development LLC, walked away, citing delays caused in part by community opposition to the big-box chain.
MTA staff spent more than a year considering locations before opting for Remington, wrote MTA spokesman Paul Shepard in an email. MTA chose the site because it would affect fewer residents than other possibilities and is close to the current location, making fewer internal changes necessary, he said.
Shepard declined to answer questions about the financial terms of the deal. He said the MTA did not solicit bids for the lease.
The MTA started construction of the new $140 million center at Kirk Avenue last November, after years of complaints from residents about noise and pollution at the facility, built in 1947. At the time, about 350 people worked at the Kirk Avenue location, used to support 175 buses serving 16 routes.
The MTA, which is scheduled to hold a public meeting Dec. 1 about the Remington deal, expects to use the temporary site for about 145 buses and 300 employees, Shepard said.
The MTA has committed to using routes that avoid residential streets, Shepard said. The buses, all diesel or hybrid, will not be visible from the street.
Stokes, whose district includes both the current location and the proposed temporary center, said the Remington community wants to be sure there is no bus idling. He said he also wants to see regular monitoring of the air quality at the new site.
"The community is concerned about whether or not we're going to have greater pollution," he said. "They're so close to houses … that we'd have to be sure that that doesn't reach a level that is uncomfortable for the neighborhood."
Stokes said he does not think leasing the site will delay its redevelopment, which was restarting under the new owners.
Principals at Seawall, which state land records show purchased a handful properties from the Anderson Automotive Group in September for more than $6.2 million, did not respond to requests for comment.