Featuring a swooping roofline and the first skyway south of the river, the new Apple Valley Transit Station opens to bus riders on Monday.

The new facility, set flush with Cedar Avenue north of 155th Street, replaces an older park-and-ride station just a block away on Gaslight Lane. And it immediately becomes a prominent landmark of the bus rapid transit system planned for the corridor.

"It's been a long time coming," said Will Branning, a Dakota County commissioner who also serves on the board of the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority, the south metro transit service that uses the new station.

The $21 million station features a three-story parking garage with space for 750 vehicles, including some designated for hybrids only, and more than 4,300 square feet of enclosed, climate-controlled platform space. A second-level skyway spans Cedar Avenue to connect the southbound and northbound sides of the station.

Apple Valley Mayor Mary Hamann-Roland said the striking glass, stone and steel building has piqued the curiosity of residents.

"A lot of people have said to me, 'Wow, that is a really, really cool looking transit center,'" she said. "The roofline follows the terrain. It's art. It's architecture reflecting the natural environment."

The station is the largest of eight stops planned for the bus rapid transit line along Cedar Avenue when buses start running from station-to-station in a designated lane between Lakeville and Bloomington in 2012.

For now, it will replace the older transit station as a hub for riders of local circulator routes and serve commuters who ride express buses to and from Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Sam O'Connell, a transit specialist with Dakota County, said the new station sets the tone for the rest of the bus rapid transit corridor as it develops.

Because it's located right on Cedar Avenue, buses won't have to leave the roadway to pick up or drop off passengers. And the skyway, meant to give people safe passage across the multi-lane road, is a nod toward the visions of a pedestrian-friendly corridor.

"It really is the highlight of the corridor," she said. "Other stations will have the same look and feel."

Currently, about 600 people park at the older Apple Valley Transit Station each day to catch the bus. But MVTA officials note that's not a total picture of ridership in the area. Many people get dropped off at the station instead of parking on-site, and local and express routes feed into the hub.

By 2030, Dakota County estimates, 4,100 trips per day will start or end at the Apple Valley Transit Station. Most will be express bus trips for commuters, but a few hundred will be station-to-station riders.

To accommodate the increased usage, the parking garage is designed so that it can be expanded to five stories.

"This adds more capacity to the service we give our citizens south of the river," said Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautz, who is also chairwoman of the MVTA board.

And the higher profile bus service has Apple Valley city officials dreaming about nearby downtown development.

Just east of Cedar Avenue in an area dubbed Central Village, the city has dozens of acres devoted to development, likely high-density housing and commercial space.

Apple Valley Community Development Director Bruce Nordquist said the parcels are level and ready to develop. But he also noted that neither development nor bus rapid transit is immediate just because the station is there.

"It's an evolution. We recognize that it may take 10, 15, 20 years," he said. "Everyone is really excited about it and has worked for years on it."

Katie Humphrey • 952-882-9056