Plenty of suggestions (on social media) on what to with the Oshawa Bus Terminal

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Published July 22, 2022 at 12:07 pm

The City of Oshawa has issued a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEOI) for the development of City-owned lands at 47 Bond Street West, AKA the Oshawa Bus Terminal, and the ‘suggestions’ have already been flooding in, albeit not on the required channels.

Officially, responses will be received through Purchasing Services at [email protected] until 2 p.m. on September 30 but with the news that Oshawa is looking to re-develop the property many months old, the suggestions have been coming in fast and furious on social media.

Those suggestions include:

  • Condos with main floor retail
  • Donate it to the university
  • Donate it to Oshawa Library
  • Homeless Shelter
  • NOT another homeless shelter
  • Drug Treatment Centre
  • NOT another methadone clinic
  • Grocery store
  • Food Bank
  • Subsidized housing

Some of the proposals have been quite detailed, while others have only asked that the City preserve the murals on the north and east side of the building.

The terminal, in the heart of the city’s downtown, closed completely on Sept. 5, 2020 when GO Transit moved its end of the line to the Oshawa GO Station. The rest of the bus terminal closed about four years ago.

Back in February, Councillor Rosemary McConkey encouraged council to get the community involved in finding new uses for the building.

“Why wouldn’t the city want to gather repurposing ideas by raising community involvement?” McConkey asked. “It presents a great opportunity for encouraging more interest, involvement and investment in the downtown, which is especially needed at this time, when businesses hit hard by the pandemic lockdowns are re-opening.”

The Site is fully serviced and is located at the southeast corner of the intersection of Bond Street West and Centre Street North, both of which are Regional roads.

The Site includes:

  • The “Terminal” – a former bus terminal building containing a public hall, public washrooms, former ticket vending office and a second floor lounge with washrooms previously used as a rest stop room by bus drivers; and
  • The “Surface Level Bus Platform Area” – the area of the building, at grade, between the Terminal and Centre Street North, formerly used as a bus loading/unloading space.

For more information contact Purchasing Services at [email protected] or 905-436-3872.

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