New Carrollton train hall will unite transit lines, bike lanes, retail

Prince George’s busiest transit stop braces for pedestrian enhancements amid growing development

By Luz Lazo

August 25, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Washington Post

A rendering of the planned train hall in New Carrollton, Md., that will connect transit services in the county. (Gensler/Urban Atlantic)

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The construction of a train hall, sidewalks and bike lanes planned for next year at New Carrollton will mark a major milestone in the long-planned transformation of Prince George’s County’s busiest transit hub.

The $47 million project, which this month received a $20.5 million federal grant, will help create a seamless space between all the modes of transportation in the area and aims to bind together the ongoing development featuring offices, housing and shops at the easternmost terminus of Metro’s Orange Line in central Prince George’s.

County and private development officials say they hope the investment, along with other efforts to boost housing and transit, will spur the kind of growth needed to create a vibrant urban place in an area now mostly known as a transportation hub.

Already, New Carrollton is home to the county’s largest cluster of employers, with nearly 12,000 public- and private-sector jobs and at least another 4,000 projected to be added in coming years as new office buildings open, including Metro’s new Maryland headquarters.

“Literally what used to be just flat surface parking lots is now an explosion of growth,” said Angie Rodgers, the county’s deputy chief administrative officer for economic development.

An aerial-view rendering of the planned train hall, which got a boost last month from a $20.5 million federal grant. (Gensler/Urban Atlantic)

Besides a new Metro headquarters, construction is now underway on a 291-unit apartment complex and an 1,800-space parking garage that will house bus operations. Amtrak is also planning a $75 million overhaul of its facilities.

Officials hope the pedestrian and bike enhancements will create better connections for transit users and those who live and work there amid the ongoing growth. Plans are to begin construction next year and have all features, including the train hall, built by 2026.

“New Carrollton, as a transit-oriented development area, has been envisioned as something that is walkable and bikeable, that is multimodal,” Rodgers said. “That federal grant is going to allow us to get some of those connections.”

The train hall will be built in what is now open space leading to the Metro, creating covered spaces for the escalators and opportunities for retail, officials said, while offering transit users a seamless way to connect between the multiple modes of transportation.

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New Carrollton has a Metro station as well as stops for MARC and Amtrak trains and local, regional and intercity bus lines. It also is where Maryland is building the easternmost stop for the proposed Purple Line between Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.

The commitment to improving public infrastructure is an essential piece in supporting the ongoing redevelopment around New Carrollton, said Cheryl Cort, policy director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth, a regional advocacy group.

“It’s going to create a place that is pedestrian friendly … an urban place rather than just a collection of buildings,” Cort said.

Metro General Manager Randy Clarke said this month that the proposed changes, which also include plaza space, will enhance connectivity to the Metro station and will help attract Metro customers, businesses and additional housing at New Carrollton.

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The project is a collaboration between Prince George’s, Metro and the private developer Urban Atlantic, which will lead the construction.

Metro, which owns property around the station, has separately signed a joint agreement with Urban Atlantic for a 2.3-million-square-foot, mixed-use development project around the station — one that includes developing 40 acres of surface parking lots into more than 1,500 residential units, a hotel, 1 million square feet of office space and more than 150,000 square feet of retail. As part of that agreement, Metro’s new Maryland headquarters is expected to open later this year.

The new train hall at New Carrollton aims to bind together the development of offices, housing and shops. (Gensler/Urban Atlantic)

Vicki Davis, co-founder and managing partner at Urban Atlantic, said the pieces are coming together to create a downtown-like space in an area that has been underdeveloped and underutilized and, for too long, a place people passed through rather than a destination.

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“The county set the vision for this to become a very important economic center,” Davis said. The area bounded by the Capital Beltway on the east side, Route 50 on the south side and the railroad tracks on the northwest was rezoned more than a decade ago to allow multiuse development.

“Parking lots are having a second life,” said Davis. “We raise the density overall, and it becomes a tremendous economic engine — a place where people live and work.”

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In the past decade, New Carrollton has added major employers such as the Maryland Department of Housing and Economic Development and Kaiser Permanente. A 282-apartment building opened last year.

Metro is wrapping up a platform-improvement project at the station, and Amtrak is kicking off construction of a high-level platform and the restoration of an unused one. Plans also call for modernizing ticket counters and employee offices. Amtrak said their project, expected to be completed in 2025, will help facilitate growth and is part of a larger plan to relieve congestion and allow for greater operational flexibility and service expansion between Baltimore and Washington.

A rendering of the planned plaza space at New Carrollton. At least another 4,000 jobs are projected to be added in coming years as new office buildings open. (Urban Atlantic)

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) this month welcomed the news of the $20.5 million grant, which the county got under the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program. Alsobrooks said the funding would support the improvements around the New Carrollton transit station, covering nearly half the cost of the pedestrian and bike enhancements.

The project is among five in the greater Washington region receiving nearly $60 million in total in federal funding under RAISE, which is receiving an infusion of $7.5 billion over five years from last year’s infrastructure law.

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“This is yet another symbol of rising opportunity for all Prince Georgians,” Alsobrooks said in a statement. “We are excited about this project because it will transform the largest employment cluster in the County into a true ‘downtown’ area and help ensure that New Carrollton becomes the premier transit hub on the eastern seaboard.”

County leaders have sought to lure more commercial and residential development to New Carrollton for more than a decade. The changes in New Carrollton, some say, are a sign the county is on the right track to meet long-held goals of developing their Metro stations.

“For years we have seen growth concentrated on the west side of the Beltway. And we really didn’t have these job centers in Prince George’s County,” Rodgers said. “We didn’t see the same type of development around our Metro stations that we’ve seen around others. But now we’re seeing it.”

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November 16th 

Councilman Dannielle Glaros held a New Carrolton Metro Station Development Zoom meeting to update local communities. 

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The metro hub was mentioned. 

Amtrak, MARC, WMATA, Greyhound, and Purple Line's tranportaton will be traveling from this hub. The Amtrak, MARC, and WMATA platforms will be redesigned and upgraded. 

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The metro hub will be integrated with the new garage with the new location of the bus kiss and ride.

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