MARTA To Revive Developer Search For Arts Center High-Rise Project

MARTA is gearing up again to push for the redevelopment of its Arts Center station with apartment towers.

Atlanta's transit agency is planning to issue a request for proposals as soon as January to restart the redevelopment of the 6-acre MARTA Arts Center station property into a transit-oriented development, MARTA real estate executive John Benton told Urbanize Atlanta.

The station, sandwiched between 15th and 16th streets along West Peachtree Street, is in an Atlanta zoning district that allows for dense urban uses and historic preservation.

“I think [the site] is a gem, to be honest. It has potential to be a multi-high-rise site,” Benton told Urbanize. “It’ll take a real developer with real horsepower to develop it. It’s a complex site. So the selection will have to be a developer who’s done something similar, has experience, can work through the complexities of the site itself and have the financial wherewithal to build it at one time.”

The RFP would offer developers air rights over the low-rise Arts Center station building. 

Since 2022, MARTA has eyed its transit stations as prime redevelopment opportunities that would bring affordable housing and more potential riders. The board of directors that year ordered predevelopment work at five other MARTA stations, but only one of which — the new Brookhaven City Centre — has been realized. 

That same year, MARTA selected a development team led by The Peebles Corp. to redevelop the Bankhead MARTA Station on Atlanta’s Westside. The redevelopment team, which includes Third & Urban, has yet to begin work on the project.

Peebles Executive Vice President Donahue Peebles III told Bisnow the team is still working on its plans to redevelop the property, but macroeconomic issues and MARTA staff rollover have slowed progress.

"I wouldn't say hampered progress. These deals are slow going," Peebles told Bisnow. 

"We're still working on it. We're having conversations routinely with MARTA staff," he said. "We believe in a long-term partnership with MARTA."

The other projects have also stalled, according to Urbanize. 

MARTA’s board issued an RFP in 2022 for redevelopment partners of the Arts Center station. Benton, who was not with the agency at the time, told Urbanize that a development team was picked but it struggled to make the financials work under the site’s 20% affordable housing requirement. 

Then, rising interest rates and MARTA staff shake-ups stalled progress on the agency’s TOD projects, including the Arts Center, which was officially canceled. 

“There were a number of senior folks that departed MARTA, and the party line at the time of the cancellation was that they didn't have the staff to shepherd the project forward,” Benton said.

Given the Arts Center’s site complexities, Benton told Urbanize that the agency would negotiate with developers on the schedule for groundbreaking and development milestones. But he said he wants to include “timing triggers” in the RFP to push the redevelopment forward, according to Urbanize.

Benton also told Urbanize that MARTA may not require a chosen development team to hit the 20% workforce housing requirement.

“We want to encourage that, but it might not kill the project,” he said. 

In an email to Bisnow, Benton said he believes the commercial real estate markets are “starting to turn,” which makes it more likely a redevelopment can finally be successful.

“And we believe reduction of interest rates are on the horizon,” he said.