As two excavators took turns chipping away at the concrete overhang of one of the former Atlanta Medical Center building’s entrances, a handful of Atlantans who used to work there recorded the demolition with their phones.
Meta Anthony donned a purple T-shirt with the hospital’s logo emblazoned on the back. The former employee said that she started in nursing school but quickly found her passion as an administrative secretary at the facility where she went on to work for two decades.
“We were like a family, we were very close knit,” she said, describing the community of health care workers who treated patients at the Atlanta Medical Center. “Everyone was respected — no matter what your title was.”
Anthony and hundreds of others lost their jobs in 2022, after Wellstar Health System announced it was shuttering the hospital, citing financial strain and patients who visited the ER when they needed only a clinic.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
The decision was met with harsh criticism from the community and elected officials, particularly Mayor Andre Dickens who recently told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the hospital’s closure left a health care gap that has yet to be filled.
The 22-acre site in the Fourth Ward neighborhood has sat untouched for nearly three years, but is now on track to begin a new chapter as a community hub with parks, housing, retail shops and office space. Integral Group — selected to lead the site’s redevelopment — has also promised some form of health care although it’s not yet clear what that might look like.
The city’s initial proposal suggested up to 2.4 million square feet of residential units, 120,000 square feet of commercial and retail shops, and 240,000 square feet of office space. The redevelopment could also connect walkers to Freedom Park Trail, Old Fourth Ward Park and the east side of the Beltline.
Ahead of the start of the demolition on Monday, Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman, Wellstar CEO Candice Saunders and Integral CEO Egbert Perry promised to be partners in creating a new, mixed-use space that honors the historic community in which it sits.
“This is about re-knitting a part of the city of Atlanta — stitching back a community that was sort of severed from both disinvestment and the freeways,” Perry said of the ambitious project named “BLVDNEXT.”
“This is really a reconnection,” he said.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
The hospital was a pillar of the Atlanta community for 121 years and operated at the current location on Boulevard since the 1920s. When the facility shutdown for good, it left the city with only one Level 1 trauma center at Grady Memorial Hospital.
Demolition of the site will take at least a year, companies involved in the redevelopment have said, and will be surgical rather than implosions, to limit debris and dust. Some of the building is still covered in lead-based paint that will be slowly stripped.
And like with many large development projects, the builders also want the city to improve the surrounding infrastructure to support the new development.
“The city is committed to making this infrastructure better,” Shipman said on Monday. “To making the streets, the sidewalks — the way that this spot integrates with the rest of this neighborhood and with the city — better.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Wellstar, which still owns the land, and Integral have pledged to engage the community throughout the project and pay homage to the rich history of both the hospital and surrounding neighborhood.
“This ground carries the legacy of people who gave so much to the community and to each other, and that legacy will be the foundation of what is built here,” Saunders said. “Know that we will stand on your shoulders as we build what the next chapter for this location is, together.”
— Staff reporter Ariel Hart contributed to this report
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