The City of Hercules, The Hercules Hub

The City of Hercules is redeveloping the site of its original dynamite factory as an urban downtown district, preserving many historic structures of the original factory town and connecting the City to other Bay Area cities. The General Plan includes a transit-oriented community around a Regional Intermodal Transit Center combining rail and ferry service, supplemented with bike, pedestrian, automobile, regional bus, and local shuttle access in one convenient Waterfront location. Designated as a California Catalyst Project by the state, the project illustrates how redevelopment can be part of a transit-oriented community. When complete, the intermodal station will be the only place on the west coast where there will be a single connection point to bus, transit, rail, and ferry, and it will be one of the largest transit-oriented developments in California.

Gray-Bowen-Scott was engaged by the City to help advance the state of readiness of the City’s project, ensuring The Hub was well-positioned for grant funding. Our team prepared the City’s request to the California Transportation Commission for an extension of time, resulting in the preservation of nearly $9M in Federal and State funds. Our team facilitated interagency and stakeholder communications leading to the formation of the I-80 Congestion Relief Coalition, comprised of both public and private sector members, to champion solutions to address I-80 traffic congestion and accomplish the goals of the City’s Hub project. Our initiative, “Let’s Get 80 Moving, Get a Train Stop in Hercules”, led to a telephone town hall meeting, paneled by two Congressional Members, a County Supervisor and the mayors of Hercules and Richmond, and provided critical education to the public. In February 2020, the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority voted to grant Hercules candidate station status, the first step needed to establish a new train station on the Hercules shoreline.