The City of Atlanta and Atlanta Public Schools have selected a partner for the redevelopment of the historic Lakewood Heights Elementary School property.
Ali-Graceline Development, a joint venture of Ali Development LLC and Graceline Partners, LLC, will lead the redevelopment of the former school at 335 Sawtell Ave. SE.
The redevelopment will preserve and adaptively reuse the original 1932 Lakewood Heights Elementary School building as part of a 54,721-square-foot mixed-use project. Plans call for 42,721 square feet of residential space and 12,000 square feet of commercial space.
The Atlanta Board of Education approved the development agreement and ground lease on Sept. 1, followed by approval of the Atlanta Urban Development Board on Sept. 24. The approvals establish the first joint APS-AUD development agreement and move the partnership from planning and procurement into implementation, according to a press release from the city.
“Public land should work for the public, and that means creating homes, opportunity and stronger neighborhoods for the people who already call them home,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement. “Lakewood Heights shows what our Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative is designed to do: bring partners together, listen to the community and put underused public property back to work in a way that creates housing, preserves neighborhood history and delivers lasting value for residents.”
Shuttered since 2004, the school building was almost demolished by APS in 2022, but there was pushback from the city and historic preservationists.
The former school sits on approximately 2.15 acres in the heart of the Lakewood Heights Historic Distirct.
Atlanta Preservation Center Executive Director David Y. Mitchell praised the partnership and planned renovation of the school.
“Understanding how to retain historic character and cultural diversity, should be embraced as a universal goal, and we are all indebted to those who had the foresight and self-determination to protect and steward Lakewood Elementary School,” Mitchell said in a statement to Rough Draft. “This makes it self-evident that historic preservation is required to protect our culture, architecture and identity!”
