The former home Everest and Altierus Career Colleges will soon become another educational institution at the repurposed Greenbriar Mall department store building. SLAM! Charter Academy of Atlanta has filed for a interior renovation permit and a commercial conversion for the currently vacant building, which sits on the northwest corner of the Greenbriar Mall complex. A site plan on the SLAM! Academy website also depicts a future outdoor recreation area to include a playground with a shade structure and a full-sized basketball court The interior renovations are slated to cost nearly $600,000, with exterior renovations and landscaping also in the works.
The charter school announced its move earlier this year from its previous location at 1150 Westview Drive in West Atlanta. The new location is located at 2841 Greenbriar Parkway, just southeast of the US-285 and GA-166 highway interchange. The parcel, including parking, is approximately 6 acres in size.
The SLAM! Charter Academy is a tuition-free, “Sports leadership, Arts and Management” public charter school. According to records, during the 2019-2020 school year, the school had 102 students and offered classes to Kindergarten through 4th grade. The school is currently enrolling for its 2021-2022 school year slated to start in-person instruction in September.
Before the building was Everest and Altierus Career Colleges, it was occupied by a Cub Foods Supermarket. Cub Foods ceased its operations in Georgia in 2001, leaving this building vacant for about a decade. SLAM! Academy’s move into the Greenbriar Mall complex continues a shift away from retail for the legacy shopping mall, which has struggled to maintain big-box, anchor retailers with the rise of E-commerce and the COVID-19 pandemic. The mall’s last anchor store, Macy’s, announced in January of 2021 that it plans to close the location in the coming years after operating as a department store since the 1960’s.
