Construction of MARTA’s King Memorial TOD could finally be on the horizon

Construction could soon kick off on a more than $60 million project that aims to transform MARTA’s King Memorial train station into a mixed-use development, continuing the transit agency’s push to activate parking lots.

Last month, the development team of Place Properties and Russell New Urban Development closed on financing to begin construction, according to a report from Mass Transit magazine.

Plans for a transformative development at the station near Oakland Cemetery and the northern edge of Grant Park have been percolating for nearly seven years.

The development, planned to ascend from more than four acres of underutilized surface parking south of the station, is expected to provide 300 new apartments—100 of which would be earmarked as “affordable” units—and 10,000 square feet of new retail space.

Future patrons can also look forward to an arts project in the neighboring Grant Street Tunnel, per Mass Transit.

Estimated to cost about $62 million, the transit-oriented development is slated to be supported in part by a $6 million grant from Invest Atlanta by way of the Eastside Tax Allocation District.

At last check, in September, available floorplans for the residences would range from 520-square-foot studios to 1,125-square-foot two-bed, two-bath units.

Market-rate rents were anticipated to run from $1,220 to $2,210, and the affordable units would be priced for households earning 80 percent of the area median income.

The community is scheduled to be move-in ready in 2021, and MARTA officials hope the creation of the TOD will boost ridership at one of the least-used stations in the network.

Meanwhile, the final phase of apartment construction at the Edgewood-Candler Park Station has obliterated parking lots, the Avondale station is operating as mixed-income housing hub in Decatur, and MARTA is moving forward with plans for a “signature tower” that would be built above Midtown’s North Avenue Station.