Finding a suitable, long-term downtown transit exchange location has been an ongoing challenge since the late 1990s when the Port Theatre was constructed on the original transit exchange site. At the time, the exchange was moved to the vacant land behind the future site of the Vancouver Island Convention Centre (VICC) at 100 Gordon Street.
In 2006, during planning for the construction of the VICC and a hotel at 100 Gordon Street, the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) commissioned Boulevard Transportation Group (now Watt Consulting Group) to prepare a siting study for a permanent transit exchange.
Fourteen sites were identified and assessed (including the A&B Sound property & Jean Burns) leading to a recommendation of two options:
- An off-street transit exchange at 180 Front Street (Bowtie Property) – this location has since been leased by the Port Authority to BC Ferries for the expansion of the Gabriola Ferry Terminal.
- An on-street transit exchange on Front Street between Terminal Avenue and Esplanade.
Neither of these options were adopted, and in 2007 the transit exchange was moved to the Prideaux Street location as a temporary exchange to allow construction of the Vancouver Island Conference Centre. Originally, this was to be a three-year lease, but it was extended multiple times. The Prideaux Street Exchange was not intended to be a permanent site, quickly reached capacity and was located too far from the downtown core to be a suitable, long-term choice.
In March 2013, the City of Nanaimo (the City) acquired 1 Port Drive to help stimulate the redevelopment of a key waterfront site adjacent to the downtown core. Included in the rationale for acquiring this property were:
- the need to supplement the wooden trestle as it’s the only access to the Port lands;
- to support a master planning process to realize the community’s long term vision for the Port lands;
- to remove numerous encumbrances on the property making development difficult; and,
- the potential for incorporating a transit exchange.
In June 2018 Council adopted the Port Drive Waterfront Master Plan which suggested an “on-street” exchange along Front Street with some internal bus stops in a conceptual road network. Detailed analysis of the exchange was to occur in conjunction with planning and development of the property.
In 2018 the RDN completed a feasibility analysis on three locations:
- Terminal Avenue at Commercial Street (adjacent 400/500 Terminal Avenue),
- 1 Port Drive, and
- 11 Cliff Street.
Downtown Nanaimo Transit Exchange Study October 2018
This analysis recommended Terminal Avenue as the preferred location because it:
- is located closer to the geographic center of downtown,
- is located directly on the Terminal Avenue alignment proposed for future Rapid Transit,
- has potential to offer better opportunity to create spin off improvements to the overall pedestrian environment.
While the Terminal Avenue option was preferred, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) was not able to support the location since there was not enough space for the buses to stop outside of the travel lanes.
In 2019, the Bastion Street Bridge Upgrade necessitated closure of the bridge. The transit exchange was moved from Prideaux Street to the current, temporary location on-site at 1 Port Drive.