Athletic Club Northeast, an intown Atlanta mainstay for more than four decades, announced Wednesday that it's closing for good. The club, located between Briarcliff and Cheshire Bridge Roads at 1515 Sheridan Road, has been in business since 1978, according to online records. The club did not provide a reason for the closure, only that it will close permanently as of January 31, 2023.
"For decades, Athletic Club Northeast has played an important role in the lives of North Druid Hills residents, surrounding communities and businesses. The club has been able to celebrate countless pool parties with you, the Atlanta Braves winning the World Series, ALTA Tennis, the Olympics, and popular class after popular class in our studios."The club announced in a prepared statement.
"During this time, members and teammates have created a vibrant group that connects for all types of fitness as well as countless social events both inside the club and around town. The cliché “work hard, play hard” definitely describes the healthy community you’ve helped develop. That’s what makes this announcement so difficult. On Tuesday, January 31, 2023, Athletic Club Northeast will permanently close its doors."The club added.
Members with whom ToNeTo Atlanta spoke were surprised and disappointed that the club would give so little notice in advance of its closure. Strangely, in our preparation for this post, we discovered a job posting on LinkedIn for "General Manager" at Athletic Club Northeast that was posted just two weeks ago but is today "no longer taking applications."
Despite the lack of an explanation for the sudden closure, a source at the club told a ToNeTo Atlanta reader that the property's landlord "doesn't want us here anymore" and has "other plans for the property."
According to its website, Athletic Club Northeast is owned and managed by Wellbridge, Inc., a Greenwood Village, Colorado-based club operator with other facilities under management in Maryland, Colorado and New Mexico. As of Friday January 20, the Facebook and Instagram pages for Athletic Club Northeast have been deleted and it has also been removed from the corporate Wellbridge website.
The club is located in an area that has seen intense multifamily development in recent years. Cortland North Druid Hills (originally Accent North Druid Hills) and Cortland Oleander East (originally Oleander) are located at 7 Executive Park Drive and 10 Executive Park Drive, respectively, and include more than 650 apartments in total. Cortland Oleander West (originally Gables Sheridan) is located at 1514 Sheridan Drive and includes another 329 apartments.
Greystar is currently under construction on another multifamily development at 50 Executive Park South that will deliver several hundred more apartments to the area. The Greystar project is part of Emory University’s plan to transform the dated Executive Park office complex into a $1 billion “health innovation district.”
According to DeKalb County property records, SNH WELL PROPERTIES GA MD LLC is the current owner of the roughly eight-acre Athletic Club property. DeKalb County valued the property in 2022 at just over $6.6 million.
Are you a current Athletic Club Northeast member? If you are, where do you plan to join? What would you like to see open in place of the club?
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