Trobec’s Bus Service Breaks Ground on New St. Joseph Headquarters

ST. JOSEPH -- Trobec's Bus Service Inc., broke ground on their new headquarters in St. Joseph Thursday.

The new 110,000 square-foot facility will include enough garage space for their entire fleet, offices, and a wash bay.

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Vice President Bethany Bertram says the move from St. Stephen to St. Joe is both exciting and bittersweet.

Everything that my family knows about the bus industry started in St. Stephen. Our roots will always be there, but it's time to turn the page. It's time to move forward and start our next chapter and that's what we are excited to do.

The company has been in St. Stephen since 1938 and will move their operations to St. Joseph early next year.

She says they wouldn't have gotten this far without the help of the St. Cloud School District and city of St. Joseph with their approval of a tax abatement plan.

That allowed us to add some amenities to the facility that we weren't originally going to do but were critical to this construction. Both sides coming through with the tax abatement allowed us to really see this project through completely.

The city's portion of the agreement includes a roughly $676,000 aggregate abatement over 7 years through 2031, with 100% of the tax abatement paid each year.

Once completed, the facility will also create 5 new full-time jobs and 15 new part-time jobs in the St. Joseph community.

As for the St. Stephen location, Bertram says they plan to keep the property, however details on how it will be used is currently unknown.