ATLANTA – Invest Atlanta today announced that Columbia Ventures will serve as the developer for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Edgewood/Candler Park Transit Oriented Development. The company was selected as part of a competitive process that called for potential developers to provide their vision for the five-acre parcel.

Invest Atlanta joins MARTA in support of its ongoing Transit Oriented Development efforts and will serve as the lease guarantor on the project. As the City of Atlanta’s Economic Development Authority, Invest Atlanta also worked to ensure that the developer’s vision for the property aligned with existing community planning work. Both the community-driven 2008 Edgewood Redevelopment Plan and a 2011 community charrette provided recommendations to ensure that the Edgewood neighborhood remains a vibrant, sustainable and diverse in-town neighborhood.

“This project needed a developer with a vested interest in our neighborhood, and we can check that box with the selection of Columbia Ventures,” said Garry Long, president of Organized Neighbors of Edgewood. “Redevelopment of Edgewood has been quietly happening over the last decade and this project is the capstone to many of these efforts.”

Columbia Ventures’ experience with the Edgewood neighborhood spans a decade and includes development of more than 400 housing units across the community including senior housing, market rate housing, affordable housing and for-sale townhomes.

“Transit oriented development is the wave of now, and we are excited to launch another project that will help simplify many people’s lives,” said MARTA CEO/GM Keith T. Parker. “We’re listening to what metro Atlantans want when it comes to transportation and quality of life. Fewer and fewer people are willing to spend hours in traffic, and they want the convenience of leaving work and getting home without the aggravation of sitting on the interstate.”

The company, with experience in Transit Oriented Development and urban revitalization initiatives, plans to tackle the revitalization as part of two phases. The first phase, expected to break ground in 2015, will include just over 200 units of market rate housing and will be built with minimal disruption to existing MARTA operations.

The second phase is expected to include an additional 235 units. One of the phases will include neighborhood commercial opportunities and the full project is expected to be completed by 2019.

"This effort exemplifies one of Invest Atlanta’s key roles which is to act as the catalyst to support economic growth here in Atlanta,” said Ernestine Garey, COO, Invest Atlanta. “MARTA had the forethought years ago to set aside parcels of land around many of its stations and the time has come to leverage many of those assets in support of surrounding neighborhoods to provide economic growth opportunities.”

The Edgewood/Candler Park project represents the first Transit Oriented Development project on which Invest Atlanta has partnered with MARTA.

“The MARTA Board and executive management team wholly embrace the idea of TODs, and we are pleased with the efforts we’ve made. Our objective is to have five MARTA TOD properties underway within 2 years, and we’re well on our way to achieving that goal,” Amanda Rhein, senior director of MARTA’s Transit Oriented Development said.