by PAUL DONSKY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/23/08
One West Court Square, a seven-story, glass-paneled office tower in downtown Decatur, might as well be covered in ivy.
The Art Institute of Atlanta recently opened a satellite location in the building. And workers are building out several floors for DeVry University's new DeKalb County campus.
It's a sharp turn for the nondescript office building, long filled with traditional tenants such as law firms doing business at the nearby DeKalb County Courthouse. In recent years, it stood mostly empty after two large tenants, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, moved out.
About half of One West Court Square's 158,000 square feet of office space will be taken up by the two schools. The sidewalks around the downtown courthouse square have already filled with students toting backpacks and art supplies.
The tower's transformation from buttoned-down business headquarters to funky student center in many ways mirrors that of surrounding downtown Decatur. Once a dowdy government district, the area has become a bustling, walkable destination dotted with sidewalk cafés, restaurants, boutiques and condos.
The schools, meanwhile, see the hip Decatur address as a big plus as they recruit prospective students. The building is also adjacent to the Decatur MARTA station, providing easy access for students and faculty.
Decatur "lends itself to a different feel than our Sandy Springs campus. It's much more of a community," said Janet Day, president of the Art Institute of Atlanta. "People can walk down the street to go to a restaurant."
DeVry and the Art Institute are both national, for-profit schools that offer career-focused courses. They're opening classroom space in downtown Decatur for different reasons.
DeVry is downsizing. With students able to do more of their course work online, the school no longer needs the amount of space it has at its sprawling, 22-acre campus north of Decatur, school officials say. DeVry has made similar moves in cities including Chicago and San Diego.
DeVry, which has six other campuses in metro Atlanta, plans to sell the north Decatur campus.
The Art Institute, meanwhile, is expanding to reach students in eastern metro Atlanta who don't want to fight traffic to get to the Sandy Springs campus. It's the school's first satellite location.
The Decatur campus opened in January and now has an enrollment of 85, with more than 200 anticipated by October, school officials said.
Freshman Sherrard Lawson, a graphic design major who lives in Lithonia with his parents, said he loves the school's setting.
"It's the perfect area," said Lawson, 19. "You can walk to places. You don't have to drive to get anything. It's real relaxed."
The Decatur campus is offering programs in areas including advertising, Web design, interior design and media arts and animation. Some programs, such as culinary arts, are offered only at the Sandy Springs location.
Downtown Decatur shops hope the influx of students and faculty members will send cash registers ringing.
While college students may not have much disposable income, city business leaders say they'll probably eat at local restaurants and frequent the fashion-forward boutiques that have sprouted along Ponce de Leon Avenue.
"It's great seeing more young, vibrant people downtown," said Neil Dobbs, president of the Decatur Business Association. "It makes it a great place to be, and we like it."
The building is owned by Quarter Circle Capital, which paid $16.7 million for it about a year ago, according to Databank. At the time, less than a quarter of the office space was leased. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's DeKalb County news bureau is in the building.
The Decatur office market is a bit unusual for metro Atlanta in that it's not located along a major freeway. As a result, the handful of large office buildings are filled mostly by small and medium-size businesses.
Decatur, of course, has long been a college town. It is home to Agnes Scott College and is just a few miles from Emory University.
But the new schools are smack dab in the heart of the city's downtown district. Lyn Menne, an assistant city manager for Decatur, said the art school could transform the area, much like the Savannah College of Art and Design has in downtown Savannah.
"It brings a new energy, and they support the little boutiques and the stores and the restaurants," she said. "And it's not just the students, it's the faculty and staff."
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