MARTA’s Five Points renovation delayed, costlier than planned, officials say

Renovating MARTA’s Five Points Station will take longer and be more expensive than planned — but by exactly how long or how much, the transit agency won’t say.

Questions about the project have swirled for several weeks since an extended timeline was first revealed to an Atlanta News First reporter by a contractor working on the project. Then, an “off the top of my head” $100 million budget increase estimate that MARTA General Manager and CEO Jonathan Hunt gave Atlanta City Council members prompted additional questions about rising costs.

Hunt and staff were grilled by a frustrated MARTA Board of Directors this week. While acknowledging the project will take longer and be more expensive, committing to any specific date or price would be premature, Hunt said.

“We will come back with the concrete number in short order,” he said.

The Five Points project is one of many that have led to criticism over MARTA’s ability to deliver projects on time and on budget. The station transformation, which will replace the leaky concrete canopy with a translucent roof and an improved street-level plaza, is controversial and has faced repeated stops-and-starts.

First, city and downtown officials called the designs “underwhelming.” Next, MARTA’s plan to close off pedestrian access during construction came under fire and forced changes. Then, records show the mayor’s office stalled approval of the demolition permits amid a now-resolved dispute over an audit of MARTA spending.

MARTA officials stressed throughout that every delay would increase the project’s costs, pegged initially to $230 million. At one point, the agency said it was at risk of incurring $10,000 per day fines for each day of delay.

Construction finally got started in May 2025.

MARTA officials said then that the project would take four years to complete.

Until this month, no changes to the cost or timeline had been announced.

The contractor’s timeline now calls for the project to finish two years later than expected, in 2031. While answering questions about the new timeline, Hunt told council members to also expect “a large budget jump.”

Hunt told council the project could end up costing “somewhere more like $330″ million, a number he caveated as being off the top of his head. This week, a spokesperson for the transit agency, Payson Schwin, said it’s not a final figure.

MARTA board members pressed Hunt and other staff on those details Thursday, asking for a ballpark of what the cost overruns might be.

Hunt said the original $230 million estimate, from 2023, is out of date. The combination of inflation, delays and changes to the scope of work guarantee the costs will exceed the estimate, but by how much isn’t clear.

“The use of (the word) ‘overrun,’ one can say that. That is one opinion,” Hunt said, adding that “because people like to seize on numbers, we are holding back … from giving off the top of the head or back-of-napkin or rough order of magnitude numbers.”

Any increase beyond 10% has to be approval by both the board and a joint committee of MARTA, city and Atlanta Beltline officials because the More MARTA fund is the project’s primary source of funding.

“I am a blunt person and I don’t know what else to say. This sucks,” said Shayna Pollock, a board member representing DeKalb County. “It stinks to say that we don’t know how much money this is going to be.”

“I didn’t say we don’t know how much money,” Hunt responded.

As for the timeline, Hunt also pushed back on reports characterizing the project as late or delayed past the 2029 completion timeline that MARTA officials gave last year. Those estimates were given before Hunt was named CEO.

MARTA’s contract for the renovation has always extended to 2031, he said.

The news of the Five Points delays comes after major delays on virtually every other large capital project MARTA is pursuing. Completed construction of MARTA’s first bus rapid transit route, the installation of new fare gates and the introduction of new rail cars all have been delayed by months or more.

When he was named interim CEO last year, Hunt said finishing major projects was important to building back trust with Atlantans upset with the lack of progress on projects 10 years after voters approved a sales tax to fund transit expansion.