Plans have been filed for a standalone filling station along a future MARTA transit route in a neighborhood that’s packed on more than a thousand new residences in the span of a few years.

Located where Summerhill meets Peoplestown, the 834 Hank Aaron Drive project would include a 3,434-square-foot store and four fueling stations, according to permitting paperwork filed Thursday with the City of Atlanta’s Office of Buildings.

The corner lot in question is less than two blocks from Georgia State University’s Center Parc Credit Union Stadium, home to Panthers football games, concerts, and other events.

According to filings, it’s currently zoned MRC-1-C, which allows for mixed residential and commercial development, provided certain conditions are met.

“How has this not been rezoned to prevent this type of development?” asked one Summerhill tipster in an email to Urbanize Atlanta.  

Site of the gas station proposal in relation to the Summerhill stadium and other area landmarks. Google Maps

The gas station would occupy the northeast corner of Hank Aaron Drive and Ormond Street, where a 1960s convenience mart called Stadium Grocery operates today.

The parcel fronts the street where MARTA hopes to begin installing the first bus-rapid transit route in metro Atlanta next spring, a five-mile loop connecting downtown to the BeltLine’s Southside Trail in Peoplestown.  

Ormond Street stops on the BRT route would practically neighbor the gas station. 

The applicant is listed in building permit records as Decatur-based Contineo Group. We’ve inquired with a Contineo representative about where the gas station proposal stands, what it might look like, and when the project may break ground, if permitted. We’ll update this story if additional details come.

The 1960s retail building in question, at right, and the proposed route for Summerhill BRT. Google Maps

Proposed BRT route just north of GSU's stadium. via MARTA, March 2022 presentation

Fulton County property records indicate Suntree Petroleum bought the .4-acre parcel for $1.1 million in April—more than twice what the property fetched in 2010.

The gas station proposal follows another Hank Aaron Drive project that could soon seem out-of-place in the rapidly densifying southside neighborhood.

Across the street from the stadium, Chase Bank is finishing construction of a standalone banking branch on another .4-acre parcel along the BRT route, where Hank Aaron Drive meets the otherwise bustling Georgia Avenue.

MARTA had hoped to open Atlanta’s first BRT route for passengers by August 2024. But skyrocketing building and labor costs, in conjunction with MARTA’s inexperience in creating new transit lines over the past two decades, has bumped that timeline back until the summer of 2025, as the transit agency revealed in August.

The 14-stop Summerhill BRT route revealed by MARTA in August. via MARTA

• Summerhill news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta)