BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — The Greyhound Bus station in downtown Bakersfield is about to punch its last ticket.

The 62-year-old, 21,000 square foot building at 18th and F has been sold — and the new owners plan to knock it down and build a 4-story apartment complex in its place.

Two things make that newsworthy — one is the sale’s impact on transportation. The other is the project’s significance in the local evolution toward downtown housing.

When the station was built in 1958, Bakersfield was a different city and interstate travel was a different animal. 

And now that it has been sold for $1.27 million to Church Plaza LLC, which will replace it with a 100-unit apartment complex, it’s the latest and perhaps most dramatic evidence that downtown housing — a hallmark of revitalization in cities across the country — continues to gain traction in Bakersfield.

The city manager’s office has been interested in moving the bus station for at least two years — aware of the area’s growing momentum as an entertainment and leisure attraction, with the Padre Hotel as its flagship.

But  Church Plaza LLC — which acquired the property in July — never consulted with the city on the purchase, according to company officer Darius Mojibi, who’s working with his father, Majid Mojibi, president of San Joaquin Refining Company.

“It’s a neat location,” said Darius Mojibi. “Hopefully we can bring something nice to downtown that Bakersfield can benefit from.”

Construction could begin as early as this spring.

Greyhound has until the end of the year to move, with extensions possible if needed. It will likely move to the city’s Amtrak station a mile east.

Other cities co-locate bus and rail because it’s efficient and convenient, and that’s the plan in Bakersfield. Perhaps with a staffed counter inside the Amtrak station, perhaps with just a digital kiosk.

Ward 2 Councilman Andrae Gonzales says the move should help energize a section of the city that’s already certain to get additional buzz from Bitwise headquarters, a workshare and technology company two blocks east. It’s under construction now.

“You want that 24-hour downtown where things are happening at all hours of the day,” he said. “Not just during the daytime where people are in their offices and coming to work. But also in the evenings and the weekends. You want that energy. You want people roaming the streets. You want people visiting, patronizing the restaurants and bars and cafes and going to the art galleries.”

Where urban apartments and condos pop up, restaurants, bars and boutiques thrive. They all play off each other, and the tax base surges — to everyone’s benefit.