Brookhaven to pay $2.9 million lease to MARTA

City Council signs a 50-year agreement to build a new City Hall.

Brookhaven and MARTA are partnering to build a new City Hall at the city’s train station, a plan intended to center Brookhaven around public transit and create an identifiable city center.

On Tuesday, the Brookhaven City Council signed a ground lease agreement to pay $2.9 million to MARTA over the next 50 years for the property. MARTA signed their half of the deal last week. The 1.2-acre development site encompasses a long-term parking lot at the Brookhaven-oglethorpe station, which often is underused and empty.

Mayor John Ernst called the deal a “long time coming,” adding that the city has been in discussion with MARTA officials about this plan for half a decade. Discussions on building a City Hall at the station began in 2017 once a $200 million mixed-use development at the station was canceled by MARTA due to several disagreements.

“Today’s action by the City Council marks a historic milestone for Brookhaven,” Ernst said in a news release touting the agreement. “We were all seeking a transit-friendly live-work-play solution that meets the current and future lifestyle needs of residents and our greater regional community.”

During a Tuesday work session, Brookhaven’s Economic Development Director Shirlynn Fortson gave a presentation on “Project Homeplate,” the codename for the City Hall development. She did not have any design details or rendering to reveal, since that will be the next phase of the project, she said. Construction costs also haven’t been determined.

She did show an aerial map of the project site, which places the City Hall on the west side of the MARTA tracks. The building would connect to Peachtree Road, just south of the current Brookhaven Station shopping mall. MARTA will continue to use the long-term parking lot until construction begins, and then it will be relocated to the eastern side of the tracks.

Brookhaven, which incorporated a decade ago, has been searching for a new City Hall site for the past few years. The city currently rents a building off Peachtree Road, but its leaders have said they want their suburban community to have an identifiable city center anchored by a new City Hall.

Collie Greenwood, MARTA’S interim general manager and CEO, said he believes the Brookhaven-oglethorpe station is the perfect site to spur development.

“This project will inspire future development around the station, increase ridership, and improve pedestrian and bicycle connectivity, and makes a powerful statement about the centrality of transit,” Greenwood said in the release.

City leaders touted that they’ll become one of the only metro Atlanta cities to have their city centered around a MARTA station. The City Halls for Decatur, Doraville and East Point are all located within a quarter mile of their respective train stations, while Dunwoody and Sandy Springs have more than a mile of pavement between their City Halls and MARTA stations.

“While there are a couple of cities with headquarters near MARTA rail, Brookhaven will be the only one with a City Hall adjacent to a train station,” Councilman John Funny said in the release. “Visitors to City Hall, employees, and onsite community events will be able to leverage transit ridership conveniently, which is better for traffic and air quality.”

Brookhaven will oversee the project’s planning, financing, and construction phases. The lease agreement will be canceled if the city does not begin construction on the site within three years. Once the 50-year lease ends, Brookhaven will have the option to purchase the property for $10.