Facing A $40 Billion Shortfall, U.S. Transit Agencies Jump Into Real Estate

[M II A II R II K]

Facing A $40 Billion Shortfall, U.S. Transit Agencies Jump Into Real Estate


03-03-21

By Nate Berg

Read More: https://www.fastcompany.com/90610003...to-real-estate

.....

Developing transit-agency-owned land is not just a pandemic reaction. Some agencies have been doing it for decades. But now, at one of the darkest times for public transit systems, there’s growing interest in tapping agency resources to safeguard themselves from collapse.

- Development is always geared toward improving ridership and making more transit-oriented communities whether it’s on land the agency owns or not. — Some studies have shown transit-oriented development projects increasing transit ridership by 20% to 40% at individual stations. One study in California found that when people moved to within a half-mile of a train station, more than 50% switched their commutes from cars to transit. When done well, these projects can make an impact. But they also come with risks. One notorious project initiated in the mid-1990s in Beaverton, Oregon, bankrupted two different developers and suffered through more than a decade of delays and stalled construction. Not every transit-oriented site is necessarily a good fit for development.

- But in big and growing cities, transit-oriented projects have a better chance of success. In Atlanta, the development of land owned by the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, or MARTA, has helped offset the short-term impacts of the pandemic, providing a steady stream of income as revenue from trains, buses, parking, and concessions have plummeted. It has also underscored the agency’s importance as a steward of taxpayer money, according to Jacob Vallo, MARTA’s senior director of transit-oriented development and real estate. — “What drives our entire team on the TOD side is really an impact investment approach, which is two strategies: Let’s figure out how we can help the authority by unlocking the value of our existing land and air rights holdings, but let’s also do good for the community,” he says.

.....