The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) and the Simpson Organization have announced an agreement to build a pedestrian bridge to connect the Medical Center Rail Station to the Peachtree Dunwoody Pavilion.
The Peachtree Dunwoody Pavilion is being converted from a suburban office complex with acres of surface parking lots to a more dense, mixed-use development. This will be MARTA’s second project working with a private developer in the perimeter market to provide direct transit access to a building. In 2017, MARTA worked with State Farm to connect its 8,000-employee southeastern headquarters to the Dunwoody MARTA station.
“MARTA is excited to work with the Simpson Organization as they redevelop this prime piece of real estate,” said MARTA General Manager and CEO Jeffrey Parker. “This public-private partnership will benefit those who will ultimately live, work or use the services offered at Peachtree Dunwoody Pavilion by providing convenient access to transit. MARTA welcomes the opportunity to work with developers who understand the benefits that direct transit access brings to their projects.”
In recent years, MARTA – in response to demand from property owners for better connectivity – has been advancing transit adjacent development (TAD) opportunities. TADs are development or redevelopment projects on land owned by others, but adjacent to an existing transit station or bus stop. Upon completion, the redeveloped Peachtree Dunwoody Pavilion, now an existing office park situated on Peachtree Dunwoody Road in Atlanta, Ga., will be a 1.1-million-square-foot mixed use development consisting of office and residential space, a hotel and parking space – all conveniently connected to transit.
A 2018 report from Cushman Wakefield, “The Growing MARTA Market,” reported that office rents at buildings within a half mile of a transit station were 24 percent higher than the overall Atlanta market. MARTA’s Office of Transit Oriented Development is leveraging private developers’ interest in development at and near MARTA facilities to increase ridership and contribute to the vibrancy of surrounding communities.
A. Boyd Simpson, president and CEO of the Simpson Organization, said, “We have always found MARTA to be a professional and productive partner in the advancement of transportation solutions, and our agreement at PDP is yet another example of this success.”
The redevelopment project began in early 2019. Construction on the pedestrian bridge will begin in June 2020, with completion anticipated in late September of 2020. MARTA patrons of the station will not be impacted during the construction period.
