Wellstar Health System’s abrupt and widely criticized 2022 closure of Atlanta Medical Center (AMC) — a move that gravely blunted the city’s capacity to handle major medical emergencies — spurred questions that remain unresolved about what to do with the 25-acre site and the company’s moral obligation to the general public.
For the past two years, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has insisted that Wellstar reactivate the hospital; AMC’s closure left Grady Memorial the only level-one trauma center in town. But his administration is exploring uses for the property beyond addressing the city’s urgent need for healthcare and emergency services.
Maybe much-needed housing units could bloom from the mostly idle Old Fourth Ward site, city leaders suggested this week.
“The AMC site, which comprises over 10 parcels, some of which are vacant lots, is ripe for mixed-use development,” Atlanta City Councilmember Amir Farokhi said in an email. “Housing should be considered, given the site’s proximity to the city center, jobs, transit, parks, and strong retail.”
“The market demand for housing is there,” he added.
That’s not out of the cards, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office told Atlanta Civic Circle. Indeed, the administration has been in talks with Wellstar to craft a master development plan for the AMC site, which has just been completed.
“AMC’s closure had a huge negative impact on an already challenged healthcare network, which is why the administration engaged a planning consultant to develop a master plan for the site,” Dickens’ spokesperson said. “That plan is complete, and we are reviewing the study while working with AMC leadership to ensure any development plan matches expectations of the community and the mayor.”
Dickens’ office did not share details of the new master plan, but it signaled openness to incorporating a housing component and other types of development at the site. What’s more, the city has already repurposed part of the property as a temporary shelter for people experiencing homelessness.
Since Wellstar owns the AMC site, the city can’t force it to reopen the hospital, but Dickens renewed an executive order in May that halts rezoning proposals, permit requests, and all other development-related applications for the property. The Atlanta City Council voted to extend that moratorium on June 17.
The freeze on development, Councilmember Michael Julian Bond said, aims to prevent Wellstar from “flipping the property,” which it purchased in 2016 from Tenet Healthcare in a $575 million package deal with four other greater metro Atlanta hospitals and 26 doctor clinics.
Bond thinks reviving the AMC site as a healthcare-focused, mixed-use development with housing units “would be a fantastic idea,” he said in a Tuesday interview.
“What I’ve heard from the community in general is that, of course, the first preference is to have a medical center there,” Bond said. “But housing comes up as a very close second. I think a savvy developer could run with that idea, to kind of mix the best of both worlds.”
The property’s future use hinges in part on how the city’s planning department updates its Comprehensive Development Plan, the sprawling, state-mandated policy document that dictates how Atlanta can be built out.
The city council ordinance extending the rezoning and permitting freeze for AMC says the local community and the city should have a say in what happens to the Wellstar-owned site, in accord with the area’s master land-use plan.
“The city desires that the community surrounding the site as well as the city should have an opportunity to update the Old Fourth Ward Master Plan and future land use maps in the city’s Comprehensive Development Plan to ensure any future uses of the AMC properties are consistent with the character of the surrounding area,” the ordinance says.