Hopes for an intercity rail and bus terminal near Atlantic Station are disappearing down the tracks, now that a private developer plans to acquire the site.
The loss of that once promising site may have torpedoed the dream of a single station that could unite MARTA with intercity rail and bus service — at least for the foreseeable future.
Local real estate magnate Jeff Fuqua on Sept. 11 contracted to buy 14 acres at the corner of 17th Street and Northside Drive that is partially owned by the State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA). He plans to build a mixture of retail, restaurants and high-density homes on the parcel, which is valued at about $30 million on county tax records.
A year ago, talks were underway to build a transit-oriented development with an Amtrak and Greyhound bus terminal on the vacant land. Some hoped the project could be a catalyst for a long-discussed, though unfunded, MARTA rail connection to the area.
Funding dried up, however, and the deal fell apart. A grant of about $6 million in federal funds that Amtrak could have brought to the table expired. And additional funding never materialized, according to SRTA spokeswoman Malika Reed Wilkins.
The absence of any public money turned a difficult project into an impossible one, Wilkins said.
Transit advocates expressed mixed feelings about losing the Atlantic Station site.
Doug Alexander, who was rail program manager of the Georgia Rail Passenger Authority for six years, said it was the city of Atlanta’s “last, best hope for any near-term, somewhat multimodal facility.”
“Now the only way to consider the multimodal station we’ve been talking about since 1985 is in the very long term,” said Alexander, a former Atlanta City Council member. “Like 30 years long term. Whereas we could have had this inside of four or five years.”
That doesn’t rule out the possibility that another site could be found outside the city limits. Both Alexander and Lee Biola, president of Citizens for Progressive Transit, think Amtrak should be adjacent to MARTA rail — perhaps beside the Doraville, Chamblee or Brookhaven stations.
“We actually think the Atlantic Station Amtrak proposal would have been a step backwards,” Biola said. “The current Amtrak station is not an easy walk from MARTA. Atlantic Station would have been even further away.”
Even when the plan for the Atlantic Station site was considered viable, that terminal was envisioned as playing second fiddle to a larger transit hub in a dilapidated part of downtown near Five Points known as “The Gulch.”
The downtown terminal was to be the “Grand Central Terminal” of the South. If built as envisioned, it would transform about 119 acres of the city’s core with new green space and high-rise buildings while connecting MARTA with commuter rail, buses and regional train service.
But earlier this year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that a lack of political will and funding for the $1.5 billion project has brought those plans to a standstill.
Ron Grunwald, land use chair for the Loring Heights Neighborhood Planning Unit, said he has met with Fuqua twice about the proposed development and thinks it could be positive for the neighborhood. Nevertheless, he expressed disappointment that the station deal fell apart.
“I’m not sure we would have liked to have Greyhound, (but) I know my neighborhood would have loved to have seen the Amtrak station move there,” Grunwald said. “A nicer station would have promoted this area a little more and projected Amtrak a little better.”
Representatives for Amtrak and Greyhound say the companies are still intent on replacing their stations.
Amtrak occupied the historic Brookwood Station on Peachtree Street in 1979. But that was never designed to be a main terminal and the building is not well outfitted for disabled people. The station served about 99,000 passengers last year.
The Greyhound station has been on Forsyth Street near the Atlanta jail for 13 years, but a company spokeswoman said it is seeking a more permanent site.
Fuqua, a prolific developer who’s a key partner in the planned mixed-use entertainment district near the new Braves stadium in Cobb County, said he’d been interested in the Midtown site for years and started to pursue it earlier this year after the multimodal terminal plans unraveled.
Fuqua and his partners plan up to 100 detached single family homes, 350 high-end rental homes and about 40,000 square feet of street-front retail that will have a heavy restaurant focus. The project, he said, will be walkable and help fill the gap between the burgeoning West Midtown area and Atlantic Station.
Fuqua said Amtrak is investing in upgrading its Brookwood station, and that there still could be potential somewhere in the city for a new train terminal development. Fuqua is seeking a rezoning of the site and said he hopes to complete the sale and rezoning by March or April.
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