After more than two years of idleness, at least publicly, a MARTA station’s planned mixed-use overhaul is back on the table with a fresh approach and new project name. 

Meet … the “Hollowell Innovation District.”

That’s the new working title for the Bankhead station’s planned Transit-Oriented Development redo around the last westbound stop on MARTA’s Green Line, at the doorstep of Atlanta’s largest greenspace in Grove Park. 

Site plans for Bankhead station have been heavily revised since 2023, with office uses subtracted. They call for two mixed-use towers standing 15 stories or more to eventually rise over the transit hub’s platforms, according to the agenda for a meeting planned today between Invest Atlanta and its financing group, Urban Residential Finance Committee. 

The Bankhead station and surrounding properties today. Courtesy of MARTA

Two-phase breakdown of Hollowell Innovation District plans, per Invest Atlanta documents. via Invest Atlanta/MARTA

According to Invest Atlanta, phase one of Bankhead station development calls for construction to begin sometime in 2027, with delivery two years later. An LLC for the Hollowell Innovation District was formed last week, records show. 

A development summary for the 1335 Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway transit hub calls for 421 apartments total across two phases, with more than 8,000 square feet for restaurants, shops, or other retail included. 

Those buildings would stand 15 stories (216 units, plus 3,000 square feet of commercial space in phase one) and 17 stories (205 units, with 5,500 square feet of commercial in the later phase). 

Rooftop amenities totaling 5,000 square feet would crown both buildings. Site plans also include 532 parking spaces and a new MARTA station house over train platforms, per Invest Atlanta. 

Office space isn’t mentioned or included in site diagrams. 

New rendering included in Invest Atlanta filings for the Hollowell Innovation District. via Invest Atlanta/MARTA

The TOD project's 1335 Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway location west of Midtown. Invest Atlanta

Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development authority, is seeking approval for a $24-million, tax-exempt bond to help get the project moving where Grove Park meets Bankhead. The initial phase is expected to cost $81 million overall. 

The project will aim to expand access to workforce and affordable housing, in addition to “neighborhood-serving commercial space that strengthens walkability and revitalizes the Hollowell corridor,” per Invest Atlanta’s summary. 

Apartments in phase one will be reserved for tenants earning 60 percent of the Area Median Income or less.  

That means rents would range from $1,042 monthly for studios (400 square feet) to $1,481 for three-bedroom options (1,000 square feet), according to Invest Atlanta. 

“Together, the [Bankhead MARTA TOD] phases create a sustainable, mixed-income community that reduces transportation burdens, promotes economic mobility, and advances the City of Atlanta and Invest Atlanta’s goals for equitable, transit-connected development,” reads a project summary. 

MARTA’s board of directors in late 2022 picked Peebles Corporation—considered one of the largest minority-owned real estate developers in the U.S.—to lead the joint venture in Bankhead. Also included in the deal are local development firm Bolster Real Estate Partners and New York-based Exact Capital Group. (The latter company also led development of Skyline Apartments, a 250-unit Peoplestown affordable housing tower that debuted over the Beltline’s Southside Trail in October.) 

Third & Urban, the company behind adaptive-reuse projects Westside Paper and Common Ground along the Beltline, was previously part of the redevelopment team but isn’t mentioned in recent filings. 

An early rendering (with office uses at left) depicting eastern views across the multi-pronged Bankhead station TOD, with the Proctor Creek Greenway's existing first phase at bottom. Courtesy of MARTA

Broader context around the Bankhead transit hub today. Courtesy of MARTA

The TOD would be a first for Atlanta’s Westside, though H.E. Holmes station is also in late-stage planning phases for redevelopment at the western end of MARTA’s Blue Line, as transit officials told Urbanize Atlanta in October. 

Bankhead and H.E. Holmes are two of five stations MARTA pinpointed three years ago—also spanning to Brookhaven and Stone Mountain—as being ripe for redevelopment to create more active uses. So far only Brookhaven has seen its former underused parking lots adjacent to a transit hub remade into a new building. 

Redevelopment of the agency’s Westside stations would join other MARTA-led TOD projects from Grant Park to Edgewood and Decatur’s eastern fringes that have transformed parking lots into multifamily housing and other uses. 

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