The opening of a new downtown transit transfer center in Minot is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 3, according to Transit Superintendent Brian Horinka.

“We’re getting ready to move into our new transit center downtown, in the Renaissance parking garage,” Horinka said at a virtual community discussion on the city’s preliminary 2025 budget Wednesday.

“Construction is probably 80 to 85 percent done,” he said. “We’re excited to move downtown and be part of that effort to revitalize our downtown area. We think moving people in and out there all day long, every half an hour, is really going to help bring more visibility and more folks downtown so we can have them take advantage of everything downtown has to offer.”

The current transit transfer center is located at Minot Municipal Auditorium. Horinka also said the two bus routes added on July 8 to serve the areas around the new hospital in south Minot and north of the airport have been well received. In the first three weeks, about 350 rides were given on the two new routes, he said.

This week, the city’s transit system is holding its annual free rides week.