Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is rebidding five parcels of real estate available for development around the airport.
The Atlanta airport plans to lease out the land for projects such as mixed-use retail and entertainment similar to Ponce City Market and Krog Street Market, a cargo or logistics facility, aviation office space, a restaurant or travel center.
The properties include 12 acres on Clark Howell Highway,145 acres on Godby Road, 8 acres on Loop Road, and a 15-acre parcel and 1.8-acre parcel on Riverdale Road.
This is the second time the airport has sought developers for the five properties, after a similar solicitation in 2019. The airport ended up canceling that contracting process in June 2020 during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic “to allow potential bidders to focus on economic recovery at the time.”
The airport plans to hold a pre-proposal meeting via Zoom for companies interested on Nov. 16 at 11:30 a.m. The meeting was rescheduled from an earlier planned date in October. The deadline for proposals was also extended, to Jan. 5, 2022.
Atlanta airport managers have long pushed for more development around the airport, an area that features industrial properties, empty lots, airport hotels, logistics facilities, apartments and off-airport parking lots, along with some corporate offices, shopping centers and houses.
But there are challenges, particularly after the pandemic drove a 60% decline in passenger traffic at the Atlanta airport last year due to the pandemic.
Hartsfield-Jackson is in the process of scaling back a long-delayed “Airport City” development planned for a spot steps away from the domestic terminal. The lease for the project dates back to 2016 but it has not been built yet. Now, the airport is removing a gas station travel plaza tract and a mixed-use development tract and terminating a lease for an office development at the site.
