atlanta business tagged interest

Atrium Health, the biggest North Carolina hospital system operator, appears ready to expand on its substantial Georgia presence. The not-for-profit system spent $70 million this month for a 40-acre property in southwest Atlanta, adjacent to the West End light rail station, The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. An Atrium spokeswoman confirmed the report.

Atrium is part of the Charlotte-based Advocate Health system, one of the largest U.S. hospital operators.

“Atrium Health remains dedicated to broadening access to care in Georgia to meet the growing needs of our communities,” the company said in a statement. “We are also excited about Atlanta’s focus on economic development and mobility, and commitment to addressing the needs of vulnerable communities.”

Southwest Atlanta has received less investment and has a lower average household income than more affluent parts of the Georgia capital. But new developments are increasing the amount of retail sites and housing units there. The Atrium property is near the popular Beltline trail and about a mile south of the Atlanta University Center, a consortium of historically Black colleges including Morehouse, Spelman and Clark Atlanta University.

In October, Atrium announced a partnership with a Morehouse School of Medicine affiliate for a primary care clinic in East Point, an Atlanta suburb. The clinic is aimed at providing more resources for an area with limited healthcare services, Atrium said. Morehouse is among the largest educators of primary-care physicians in the U.S.

Atrium is already a major force in Georgia healthcare. In 2018, it bought the Navicent system that is a main hospital operator in the Macon area. That coincided with its new brand, Atrium, which replaced Carolinas Medical System.

In 2021, Atrium acquired another not-for-profit system that owned hospitals east of Atlanta in Rome and Cedartown, Georgia and Centre, Alabama. In its largest transaction, Atrium merged with Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Aurora Health, which is a dominant hospital operator in the Chicago and Milwaukee markets.

Atlanta’s biggest hospital operators now include Northside Hospital, which has five hospitals; Wellstar, which has nine hospitals mostly in Atlanta and Augusta, Georgia; Emory University; the 643-bed Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood; and Grady Health System, which is affiliated with Fulton and Dekalb counties. None of the not-for-profit systems are as large as Advocate Health, which posted revenue of $31.7 billion and a net surplus of $2.2 billion in 2023.

Atrium said it had “no additional updates to share” on its Atlanta plans.

The Business Chronicle reported that the Atlanta property features a collection of former warehouses, some of which were built by Coca-Cola founder Asa Candler in 1914. They originally housed agricultural projects, though it later became a military manufacturing site. Most recently the “Met Atlanta” has become a hub for artists and makers.