It was Jan. 18 when Candice Saunders, the president and CEO of the Marietta-based Wellstar Health System, visited Integral Group’s offices in downtown Atlanta.
Saunders had requested the meeting to see if the nationally renowned urban development firm would be interested in redeveloping the 22-acre site of the former Atlanta Medical Center, a level 1 trauma hospital that closed rather abruptly on Nov. 1, 2022.
The meeting, which included a couple of other key Wellstar executives, happened “literally out of the blue,” according to Eric Pinckney, Integral’s senior vice president in charge of program management.
“They asked us if we would be interested in being involved,” Pinckney said. “Of course, the answer was yes because it’s what we do.”
Egbert Perry, Integral’s founder and chairman, agreed, saying Wellstar gave the firm a clear charge.
“Their primary goal was to ensure that the future for this site was good for the neighborhood and good for Atlanta. They chose us,” Perry said in an exclusive interview with SaportaReport. “They wanted to make sure this was done in collaboration with the mayor, City Council, community stakeholders and residents of Old Fourth Ward. They said one of their key values is honoring every voice.”
Wellstar announced on Oct. 17 that it had selected Integral to redevelop the former hospital site in keeping with the land-use plan negotiated and approved by the community, the Atlanta City Council and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. The plan calls for a mixed-use, mixed-income development with residential units for sale and for rent, neighborhood retail and public green spaces.
Integral and Perry were no strangers to this part of town. The area is part of Neighborhood Planning Unit-M, where Integral developed Centennial Place on the site of the former Techwood Homes before the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
Even before the founding of Integral, Perry had been involved in the area when he was working with Herman Russell and the H.J. Russell & Co. Perry, who called it “a generation ago” in the 1980s, he was involved in several projects just west of the Atlanta Medical site, 330 McGill Place, McGill Park, Cityscape and the Maggie Russell Tower. They were all located in a part of the city — Buttermilk Bottoms and the Old Fourth Ward — that had been wiped out because of urban renewal and the building of the Downtown Connector.
“We see this as an important part of reknitting, a part of the city,” Perry said. “Atlanta has been fractured in a lot of different ways, by the way in which the interstate system was done. A lot of the decisions that may have seemed progressive at the time ended up creating disconnects and fractures within the fabric of the city.”
The area has changed significantly from 30 years ago, when developments were surrounded by walls with security gates to protect the residences from the social problems brought on by urban renewal.
That may have been necessary then, but Perry and Pinckney see a totally different formula with their vision for the redevelopment of Atlanta Medical.
First of all, given the strategic location of the proposed redevelopment, it can help reconnect the area with downtown. It can serve as a catalyst for a revitalized central city along with the redevelopment of the Atlanta Civic Center and the building of “The Stitch,” a park over the Downtown Connector.
“I consider downtown Atlanta the heart of the city; Atlanta as the heart of the metro region; and the metro region as the heart of the state,” Perry said. “If you don’t have a healthy downtown, your heart is not doing well, and you need to fix it.”
That’s partly why Integral is so keen to redevelop the Wellstar property.
“This is a part of the extension of downtown,” Perry said. “It can be connected in a way that ties neighborhoods together, creates more of the human scale. It’s an opportunity to be impactful and transformational” so “there’s much more seamless relationship between the variety of blocks going east and west and north and south.”
A successful redevelopment would blend in with the existing fabric of the neighborhood and help restore the neighborhood feel to the area.
Pinckney would love to see restaurants, shopping and a pharmacy to replace the currently closed CVS — places that will serve the hundreds of new residents that could become part of the development. Although there are new townhomes in the area Pinckney said, they still lack the amenities. “That’s something we hope to bring back,” he said.
When the news came out in October 2022 that Wellstar was closing the hospital, the healthcare company received a lot of bad press and criticism.
“I believe that Wellstar got a bad rap,” said Pinckney, who added that it was not a surprise to the city, the county and the state that Atlanta Medical was losing substantial money every month. “They were warning that we can’t keep this up. We’re going to have to leave.”
Still, Pinckney said it did come as a surprise to the community. Now Wellstar is bending over backwards to make sure there’s open communications with the surrounding neighborhoods and the city.
Community leaders have been invited to walk through the campus, and Pinckney said they have seen that many of the buildings are “functionally obsolete” and will likely be torn down.
“Yes, there will be a significant amount of demolition,” Pinckney said, adding that the first structure to come down in early 2025 will be the circular parking structure next to the main building.
Perry said it’s important to distinguish between the first phase of demolition versus the first phase of development.
“Demolition is a defensive move right now to protect against further deterioration and address safety issues,” Perry said. “The first phase of development is what lends itself to be readily able to be knitted back together as you start trying to make the community whole.”
The goal will be to create a community where teachers, firefighters, nurses and other workers can live close to where they work.
“When Eric talks about building community, we want communities where everybody across the economic spectrum can live.”
Integral intends to use the approved land-use plan as a guide on how it will develop the project, which will be done in multiple phases. It’s likely the first phase of development will be on the vacant land east of Boulevard, currently slated to be three-story townhomes, mixed-use buildings and a community facility.
The Wellstar project also adds to Integral’s work within the city limits of Atlanta. It is also one of the firms involved in the conversion of the 2 Peachtree Tower at Five Points from office to residential.
Both high-profile projects show that Integral is back to being a major player in the city. For about a decade, Integral had been sidelined from projects inside the city because of political differences at City Hall under the two previous administrations. The situation has clearly changed.
“We love Egbert and the work he has done,” Mayor Dickens said after attending a celebration for the opening of the Self Help Credit Union in West End. The mayor said he was enthusiastic about both the redevelopment of West End Mall (not an Integral project) and Atlanta Medical. “We want all these projects to succeed. We want these developments done and done fast.”
Although Integral was not working within the city limits, it was working in communities like Doraville and Roswell, the Southeast and beyond.
“I’d rather be active at home and near home rather than spread all out around the country,” Perry said. “We will continue to be national, but we there’s no question that we need to be heaviest in our representation of activities here at home.”
For Pinckney, who has been with Perry since the earliest days of Integral, it all goes back to the African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child.
“We have been in the village building business, and village building is more necessary now than it’s ever been,” Pinckney said. “The Atlanta model for mixed-income communities has become the national way — the best way to build community.”
While it’s still too early to know how much the development will cost, how many residential units will be built, the level of affordability and the phasing of the project, Perry said the development will depend on the market and economic conditions.
But Perry’s goal is that 20 years from now, people traveling the site will not feel as though they are crossing a line into a stand-alone development.
“At the end of the day, this needs to be live, work, play community, as much as possible, and not just as a single site,” Perry said. “Not only must it blend in, but it has to play a role in transforming the growth and development of the area. Our goal is to not only bolster the existing community but also to address and begin to heal the damage done 60 years ago by urban renewal.”
Way to go Egbert and Candace! Very exciting for the neighborhood and the City!
Good Luck Atlanta! They bought the former GM plant in Doraville and tore the plant down. A small movie studio and one office building is all they accomplished! 160 prime acres close to a MARTA station and they could get none of their grandiose plans built that they sold the community on. We shall see!