Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Neighborhoods / Transit GDOT taps Cousins, Integral for long-awaited downtown train terminal
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 8:58 AM
The Georgia Department of Transportation said yesterday that a team including Cousins Properties, the Integral Group, both based in Atlanta, and Forest City Enterprises would lead the long-awaited public-private project. (We say "most likely" in the headline because the GDOT Board must still vote on whether to approve the contract.)
Cousins, one of Atlanta's biggest and most well-connected commercial real estate developers, helped build such large-scale projects as downtown's 191 Peachtree Tower and the CNN Center, which will abut the transit terminal. Atlanta-based Integral has earned praise for focusing on intown, infill development, including Renaissance Walk.
Among Forest City's many credits are the New York Times' Manhattan headquarters and Tower City Center in the development firm's hometown of Cleveland. Forest City Ratner, a subsidiary, is behind Atlantic Yards, a massive — and controversial — transformation of a Brooklyn rail yard into a mixed-use and sports complex. FCR defended itself last week after two of its lobbyists were linked to a New York state senator who federal prosecutors accuse of accepting bribes. A FCR spokesman told the Times that the company has parted ways with Richard Lipsky, one of the lobbyists named in federal prosecutors' criminal complaint, and that the complaint "'does not suggest that Forest City Ratner behaved in any way that’s inappropriate.'” The company has not been charged with any wrongdoing. (CL submitted questions to Forest City but has yet to hear back. We'll update when we do.)
Leading the technical process, which will likely involve brownfield remediation, transit engineering and landscape design will be FXFOWLE, Kimley-Horn, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Cooper Carry, and Urban Collage.
The team edged out two other groups, which included local developers H.J. Russell and Co., and the Jacoby Group.
We'd like to show you a rendering of the vision Cousins, Forest City and Integral have for the project. But we're afraid we can't. A Cousins spokesman says no renderings exist at this point. Of the three firms, only one — Terminus Development Partners LLC, which included Jacoby and local design firm Perkins + Will — included sketches on the short executive summaries posted Friday on GDOT's website.
And with that, let the public comment period commence! (Yes, after the state agency already selected its preferred team to basically create new downtown real estate.) The state agency will hold a meeting to give the public a chance to comment on all three proposals on Wed., March 30 from 4:00-7:00 p.m. at GDOT headquarters at the corner of North Avenue and W. Peachtree Street. You can also post comments via the state agency's website.
Comments (25)
Showing 1-25 of 25
The fastest way to ruin a bustling urban district with mixed use and green space is to put a bus terminal there. Go to any bus terminal in any major city and look around, then ask your self would this be a good spot to enjoy the afternoon? Unless you are pushing a cart with all your wordly belongings I suspect the answer would be no
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My whole life I've looked out over the gulch and wondered what could be.
Don't screw it up, guys. Oh, who am I kidding?
So, does this mean that there are commuter rail plans in the works that would utilize the station?
Modern bus terminals can be very nice. They don't have to be located in unattractive areas (though I know that has been the case).
The South Station bus terminal in Boston is in one of the nicest parts of that city:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q…
I'm waiting for someone to start an ironic 'Save the Gulch' campaign. Downtown will lose a huge landmark of gack when the gulch is gone. Decades of ick will come to an end.
The most important question that no one is asking...what will this mean for filming of The Walking Dead season 2! :)
pstone,
Excellent question, my friend. And the answer is... "kind of."
The Atlanta-Lovejoy line has had federal funding for more than a decade, which the state has never matched. There's a possibility of using cash from the 2012 regional sales tax to build the line, but that's iffy as it is. Transit wonks have often discussed the possibility of Clayton County joining MARTA. Were that to happen, revenues left over after paying for bus service — the county isn't dense enough for heavy rail, which is also cost prohibitive in this day and age — could pay for commuter rail service. Maybe setting up CID-like entities that could contribute to operations, since the rail service would benefit the surrounding areas. And then there's what's been considered the best idea: Using revenues from railroads the state owns and leases to private companies. I attended a GDOT meeting years ago where someone from the Georgia Rail Passenger Authority presented the proposal. Those leases are up in the next decade, I think. Roy Barnes talked about it during the campaign.
So there are lots of ideas. I haven't heard which one — or ones — are seriously being considered.
When I look at the Gulch it just enforces my belief that the region can still do much more to use what we currently have more efficiently.
Why does the Gulch say that to me? Because its another huge expanse of land sitting near sufficient transit service (5 points) and within walking distance of offices, retail and entertainment. There are countless other MARTA rail stations that also are near large tracts of underutilized or empty land.
True a bus station is needed so all these regional buses aren't sitting on downtown streets idling. And the mystical commuter rail they've been talking about for 20 years would be neat. So even if not built now perhaps do the build out to accommodate it in the future. But the true value of this land comes from developing it so that if/when the economy improves more jobs and population growth can locate their.
The best way to deal with congestion is not to simply build more Supply but to control Demand by getting the growth to go where its congestion impact can be mitigated.
The 3 proposals can be found here: http://www.dot.ga.gov/informationcenter/p3…
The Cousins proposal seems to be the least detailed about the project, and if anything, focused on development but mentions transit the least.
I think I've done some tailgating down there for Falcon's games, but Maker's Mark can make things a little fuzzy.
Cousins' has Forest City (aka Bruce Ratner) as its partner and the very effective/powerful lobbyist law firm McKenna, Long Aldridge. Bruce Ratner has generated some controversy with his development in Brooklyn NY but then again what doesn't in NYC.
Its good to see the MARTA report that lays out the minimum standards for accommodating the various transit facilities. http://www.dot.ga.gov/informationcenter/p3…. Its almost as if the region is taking transit seriously - impressive.
Great...more city money going to an area where it will do far less good than in others. Why is it that, despite having been incorrect time after time, people think they can build their way to prosperity?
what's your proposal AtlA? This is a public/PRIVATE partnership, where firms are putting their money on the line for the redevelopment of an area smack in the middle of the city. Sounds stupid to me too :/
For others who care, this is part of the vision for the area:
http://www.atlantadowntown.com/initiatives…
Interesting point, AtlantaAdvocate. I couldn't find the number in the article -- how much city money will be spent on this project? Do you have the total?
I'd be interested in finding out exactly how much city money is being spent on this public-private partnership between a development company and the state. That would be an awesome figure to have. Go ahead and post that when you get a chance, please. Thanks.
I hope the private sector of the economy gets involved as much as possible with this.
@ -ish: My proposal is to strategically build out undeveloped plots of land in Midtown & Downtown, with mid or high-rise mixed use developments devoted primarily to apartments (with affordable components) and ground floor retail, as well as office space that can be pre-leased or build to suit. I'd also advocate developing incentives to bring businesses into the city (targeting businesses that currently operate in Alpharetta/Windward/etc., to fill some of the vacant office space that currently exists in buildings like the Lowe's offices, PWC/Google building, and Campagnile. I'd suggest moving the streetcar development (if there has to be one) up to Ponce, so that it can run from Peachtree to Moreland, along Ponce. I'd also do this at a measured pace, so as to ensure I don't oversaturate any area with unecessary space that just sits idle and vacant.
I'm can't believe that Atlanta hasn't learned their lesson when it comes to master planned developments in blighted areas (Atlantic Station anyone?), which is exactly what this is. Instead of filling the existing vacant space that this city has (which is a lot), city officials want to build new space. Adding more supply when there isn't enough demand is an economic failure.
Oh, and these firms who want to put their money on the line, smack in the middle of the city, are going to do a lot of it with non-recourse loans, public funding, and private equity investments. Their skin in the game will be minimal, and so it makes the long shot of success worth it. Lots of private firms put their money on the line for new development and redevelopment of spaces smack in the middle of the city over the past 5 years, and a lot of those firms got burned...but their banks and the taxpayers got burned worse when they got to take back control of senseless development that's worth a fraction of what went into it - Mezzo, Atlantic Station, W Downtown, etc.
@Mosit - I don't know how much will be spent yet; nobody does. But it will be something, and whatever it is will be wasteful.
Atlantic Station isn't perfect but everything I've read its been a financial success and will be even more of one when the remaining building pads are built out. You also have to give it credit for improving Home Park values and leading to more development on the West Side.
There are a number of similarities between the Gulch and Atlantic Station in terms of being a gaping hole in the middle of the city. Now if only we could figure out how to cover the biggest gaping hole of them all .... the downtown connector.
As to getting companies to locate downtown - incentives are a good idea. I also recall hearing about other cities where groups publicized or graded companies on where they located their offices. I'd love to see some grass roots pressure on fortune 500 companies to locate closer to transit so that their jobs were more accessible and their employees had meaningful commuting alternatives.
InAtl
Great points in your first post. The people with the real power in this state have yet to comprehend the wisdom of concentrating development near EXISTING infrastructure such as transit. This project would be a welcome change from the norm.
Despite the name Atlantic Yards, Forest City Ratner is not transforming an 8.5-acre railyard into a 22-acre project. Rather, the former would be only part of the property at issue.
http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2006/05/rhetoric-check-use-and-misuse-of.html
So 40 years after the last train went through Union Station, after years of having this massive waste of space we've got folks submitting ideas of how we can best use this space and being so thoughtful in their design and now they're placing bids to create something amazing and new and innovative...er, wait, they're going to create a transportation hub? Kind of like what was there back in the day but revamped? And probably not as cool as the historic building was?
That's so Atlanta. Every day is opening day. Because every day things are torn down without planning for the future and incorporating the existing!!!
I'm all for the transit hub, it's a great location, but last time I checked we had an enormous amount of vacancies in the metro area - both commercial and residential. Who is going to fill all this space? I see empty mixed use buildings all over this city. And yes lulabelle, it was a beautiful building.
That's precisely the problem. Atlanta officials have clearly seen Field of Dreams one too many times. I'm not sure what good a transportation hub does either, when you have a population so devoted to private transportation, it's ridiculous. Again, people first, transportation, offices, retail, etc. second.
The reason we have "a population so devoted to private transportation" is that we have invested, over the past 60 years, primarily in infrastructure for cars. We have drastically under-invested in transit. Hence this effort to build commuter rail lines, and tie them into the MARTA train network.
not sure if any of you realize Cousins jumps on a lot of development projects but maybe only a third they announce ever gets built... and they end up down sizing to half the size on projects they do develop....
Cousins, as big as they may be, really isn't a realiable company to develop a project... Parsons is a very solid and strong construction group, but they would be better off working with another developer....
Cousins will make a huge sales pitch and very amazing presentation but will only build no more than half of their original plan....
in short.... Cousins sucks....
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