Former James River Transportation owners sell bus hub in the city for $8.5M

The plot sits just north of the Lowe’s on Broad Street. (Courtesy S.L. Nusbaum)

Nearly a year after buying local bus charter company James River Transportation, New Jersey-based Academy Bus Charter has secured its Richmond hub.

Academy last month became its own landlord in the city by purchasing 915 N. Allen Ave. for $8.5 million.

The 4-acre plot is where Academy keeps a 17,000-square-foot terminal and garage that acts as the local nerve center for its charter bus business. It had been leasing the facility from the Story family, who sold JRT to Academy last fall but held onto the land.

Stephen Story

Stephen Story, who’d been co-owner and president of JRT, has stayed on with Academy as a consultant. He said part of those duties included helping Academy scout other locations around the area that could be its local headquarters. 

“It was just to give Academy some options, helping them figure out what might be best for them and the operation,” Story said. “Honestly, finding industrial land that requires a significant amount of parking space, and a building with bays was difficult….We came to the realization that staying put is probably the best alternative.”

S.L. Nusbaum’s Doug Tice brokered the deal, which closed July 30. The city most recently assessed the 4.3-acre plot at $4.4 million. 

The Story family had owned the Newtowne West-area land since at least the 1980s, and began offloading their real estate holdings in the neighborhood last summer when they sold a 3.7-acre plot across the street at 900 N. Allen Ave. to Spy Rock Real Estate Group for nearly $8 million. Spy Rock’s currently building a 300-unit apartment building on that site. 

Spy Rock’s 5-story apartment building has topped out to the west. (Mike Platania photo)

Between the two deals, the Storys sold eight acres in the vicinity for a total of $16.4 million.

Academy also bought a pair of Story-owned lots in Norfolk for $500,000. 

Story said the family has been reinvesting much of the proceeds into other real estate projects throughout the state and in North Carolina. 

“The (family) business has changed from being a motor coach and passenger transportation company to having land for investments,” Story said. “It keeps me relatively busy.”

Academy and Spy Rock’s land is adjacent to 37 acres owned by Sauer Properties, which last summer announced plans to redevelop the largely vacant and industrial sites into over 2 million square feet of mixed-use properties as a second phase of the Sauer Center. 

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