Imagine picking up lunch at an indoor market above a MARTA rail station and enjoying your meal on a rooftop terrace replete with a water feature. Or, rather than taking the elevator to the parking garage for another grueling commute home by car, tapping your Breeze card at the MARTA station directly below your office and enjoying a traffic-free end to your workday.
To transform those scenarios into reality, MARTA is seeking innovative ideas to develop the air rights atop its rail stations as part of its Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) program.
MARTA has formally released a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) for air rights development at four rail stations: Arts Center, Lenox, Midtown and North Avenue. These stations are located within two Atlanta business districts and already provide convenient transit access to thousands who live, work and play nearby.
MARTA is soliciting Project Vision Statements from local and national developers capable of developing the air rights at these stations into vibrant, visionary mixed-use projects that can be upheld as a national standard for TOD.
“We want to attract the best developers, locally and nationally, to tackle this sophisticated concept of air rights development at active rail stations,” said MARTA GM/CEO Keith T. Parker. “Once complete, these stations will transform their surrounding neighborhoods and make MARTA an even more attractive choice for existing and future customers.”
The RFEI will be used to gauge market potential and assess which stations are most suitable to be subsequently released for air rights development through an open and competitive Request for Proposals process.
A copy of the RFEI can be downloaded from MARTA's website.
Station profiles, demographic information, market segmentation and economic data has been compiled through the generous support of Georgia Power's Community and Economic Development team and can be found in the TOD Portal.
Proposals are due to MARTA on Nov. 1.