For decades, Sacramento officials have said the Greyhound bus terminal – with its idling buses and criminal element – was holding back the city's downtown renaissance.

Today, after years of planning, they will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the bus depot's imminent relocation to a newly completed $7 million terminal north of downtown.

But for all the yearning and preparation, just what will replace the old bus depot at Seventh and L Streets remains an open question. City leaders acknowledge there is no definitive project on tap for the site, which extends for nearly an entire city block. What's important, they say, is the potential.

"Right now, when people leave the state Capitol and go to L Street, they see the Greyhound station and they're like, 'Is this the best that Sacramento has to offer?' " Mayor Kevin Johnson said. "It's an eyesore and we're finally moving beyond that."

Greyhound is slated to relocate next week to its gleaming new terminal on Richards Boulevard. Today's ribbon-cutting will be held at the new station, and buses could be rolling in and out of it as early as Tuesday.

Johnson and others said that whatever replaces the terminal must fit into the city's broader plans to revitalize downtown – not create another empty, blighted block on a key thoroughfare.

"It's a good day not because it's leaving," said Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership. "It's a good day because it puts a piece (of real estate) in play that hasn't been."

Over the years, ideas for a replacement have included a high-rise office tower and a year-round farmers market. None of the plans materialized.

At this point, the city is "probably better off getting (the terminal) out of downtown," even with no redevelopment plan in place, said Greg Thomas, a senior vice president at the commercial real estate firm Cornish & Carey.

Still, Thomas said, "it's certainly a dominant corner and certainly something that needs to be redeveloped."

Developer Danny Benvenuti, who owns the old depot building, said several people have inquired about the space in the past few months, but that he doesn't "have any definitive plans right now."

"I wish I did," he said.

City Hall would like to see a large-scale office building go up on the site. Benvenuti once planned a 31-story tower there, but when the economy collapsed, that plan was shelved.

For now, Benvenuti said, it would be more practical to fill the space with small-scale retail until the economy turns around.

Over the years, downtown business leaders have cited relocation of the depot as a priority, as important to the future of downtown as redeveloping the most blighted blocks of the K Street Mall or revamping the Downtown Plaza.

Between 2006 and 2010, police were called to the Greyhound station more than 3,000 times to deal with drunken behavior, drug deals, thefts and car accidents, according to police records.

City and police officials are hoping to reverse those numbers; the new terminal sits next to a large police substation and there are no liquor stores or single room occupancy hotels nearby.

Those who live and work near Greyhound's new home say they aren't concerned.

Patty Kleinknecht, executive director of the River District business association, the area where Greyhound is moving, said her organization "thinks it's a great investment in our area."

And, she said, the negative elements associated with the old depot "had to do with the facility itself and the things that surround it, and those things won't be moving."

The new terminal was finished months ahead of schedule and $200,000 under budget, city officials said.

The city built and owns the facility. Greyhound will repay the city over 20 years through lease payments. Eventually, city officials hope to move the bus terminal into a planned transit hub in the downtown railyard, a vacant expanse also slated for redevelopment.

Greyhound officials support the move.

While smaller than the L Street terminal, the Richards Boulevard building is brighter and designed to better accommodate the 230,000 outbound riders the bus line handles each year, officials said.

"It's absolutely preferable," said Roger Muckel, the terminal manager.

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