ATLANTA-The Georgia Department of Transportation is getting underway with plans to develop a large transportation hub in downtown Atlanta. The GDOT chose Forest City Real Estate Asset Services to lead the planning on a multi-modal passenger terminal on a 199-acre site there.

Forest City, in partnership with Cousins Properties and The Integral Group, both based in Atlanta, will work together on the master plan. Forest City has worked on large, mixed-use, transit-oriented development projects like The Avenue at Tower City Center in Cleveland, Atlantic Center in Brooklyn, and Westfield San Francisco Centre in San Francisco, but Emerick Corsi, Jr., president of Real Estate Asset Services for Forest City, tells GlobeSt.com the Atlanta project is one of the largest in the nation.

“Departments of Transportation have historically done a lot of master planning with architects and engineers and ended up with plans that were never executable by a developer,” Corsi says. “The Georgia Department of Transportation recognized the need to bring in a developer on the front side to work with the larger team of architects and engineers to assemble a plan that hopefully will be workable for development companies.”

The project will be located in the long underutilized "Gulch" area near Philips Arena,
the Georgia Dome, and World Congress Center. It will connect the Metropolitan Atlanta Regional Transit Authority's rail and bus lines, as well as other regional bus systems and rail networks. It will also be a catalyst and hub for future transportation functions, including commuter rail, local light rail, regional high-speed rail and streetcars.

"We envision a project that combines residential, office, retail and recreational components,” Corsi says. “But this is not going to be done overnight. Just the planning could take as long as 20 months. Bringing in the private development side up front should streamline the project timeline in the end.”