Atlanta’s mass transit authority is expanding its office footprint and moving 540 employees into a 1M SF office complex that has sat vacant since AT&T moved out in 2020.

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority inked a lease for 130K SF across four floors at the East Tower of Uptown Atlanta, formerly known as Lindbergh City Center, where it plans to move its Capital Programs, Expansion and Innovation Group from its headquarters across the street.

The CPEI Group at MARTA comprises architects, urban planners, engineers and construction managers who are tasked with MARTA’s transit-oriented development program as well as the expansion of its infrastructure.

The move comes some three years after Rubenstein Partners and Monarch Alternative Capital purchased the office building located above MARTA’s Lindbergh station for $187M in 2019. The developer renamed the project Uptown.

Uptown, composed of twin 14-story buildings, was leased to AT&T through the end of 2020, after which it was vacated and Rubenstein began a $70M renovation of the property that is slated to be completed this fall.

MARTA is the first office tenant to commit to the renovated building. Rubenstein recently announced its initial lineup of tenants for the 100K SF of retail space at Uptown: the taqueria El Gordo and the upscale Korean barbecue restaurant Bene Korean, according to a press release.

The move represents 130K SF of positive office absorption to start the year —MARTA owns and will continue to occupy its headquarters across Morosgo Drive at 2424 Piedmont Road.

The move comes as MARTA is embarking on an expansion and renovation program called MARTA 2040, which includes transforming its stations into mixed-use destinations, the authority's expansion into Clayton County, the Atlanta Streetcar and track upgrades. In June, MARTA’s board of directors adopted the 2023 operating and capital budget, which included $717M for capital programming that in part is going to renovate and expand the platforms at its Five Points and Bankhead stations. MARTA also received nearly $20M from the Federal Transit Authority to buy electric-powered buses and charging equipment to replace its older natural gas-driven buses.