MARTA and city of Atlanta officials on Monday celebrated the start of Spoke, the newest “transit-oriented development” or TOD in the agency’s pipeline.

The $40 million privately-funded mixed-use development at the Edgewood/Candler Park station is part of the agency's push to drive revenue and ridership at its stations and also encourage denser development that has a lesser impact on neighborhood streets. The event was largely ceremonial as developer Columbia Venture started construction last month.

Noel Khalil, co-founder of Columbia Ventures, said Spoke will be completed and ready for occupancy by the end of next year or early in 2018.

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