One of the largest blocks of unused space in downtown Atlanta is not a storefront or an office floor. It is a two-story health club perched on top of a parking deck at 227 Courtland St. NE, and it has been sitting dark since 2009. The former Peachtree Center Athletic Club came to market for lease a couple of months ago for the first time since it closed, and commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield says it is still available.
The scale is what makes it unusual. The club runs about 74,122 square feet across two levels of a 10-story building, with each floor measuring just over 37,000 square feet. Ceiling heights range from 16 to 25 feet, and floor-to-ceiling windows wrap the space. Below it are 966 parking spaces. The club was built in 1985, during the stretch when John Portman's Peachtree Center was still expanding across this corner of downtown.
The fixtures are still in place. There is a full-court basketball court, an indoor running track that circles past the windows with downtown views, and a large swimming pool sitting empty. Barack Obama and his campaign staff worked out at the club in 2008 before heading to a town hall meeting in Cobb County, a detail that dates the last stretch of the building's active life fairly precisely.
For a downtown tenant, the connectivity may matter more than the square footage. The property ties directly into Portman's covered pedestrian bridges, the elevated walkways locals call the hamster tubes, which link it to MARTA, the shops and restaurants of Peachtree Center, AmericasMart Atlanta and several major hotels. A tenant here could pull foot traffic off the rail station without anyone stepping outside. The site sits just west of the Downtown Connector.
Ownership has capital improvements lined up. Cushman & Wakefield says modernized elevators are due in early 2027, and the garage is getting license-plate reader ticketing to speed up parking. Lease terms are negotiable and rates are not publicly disclosed, which in practice signals a deal shaped around whoever shows up with a plan and the money to execute it.
What that plan could look like is still open. The Sunbelt Developers Podcast recently circulated conceptual renderings from the marketing package showing the old club spaces reimagined as a gift shop, a cafe, a gallery and a bar and lounge, with other sections opened up as large terraces. None of it is committed. For now, the basketball court is still up there, seventeen years after the last game.
Original reporting: Urbanize Atlanta (2026-08-25)
