Obama Once Sweated Here — Now Downtown Atlanta's Sky-High Gym Wants a Second Life

A 74,000-square-foot gym perched atop a downtown Atlanta parking garage has sat empty since 2009, its swimming pool drained and its basketball court gathering dust. Now the former Peachtree Center Athletic Club is finally back on the market, with new owners hoping someone will pour in the capital needed to bring the sky-high space back to life.

The two-story club, built in 1985, occupies the top of a 10-story building at 227 Courtland St. NE, just west of the Downtown Connector. It's available for lease for the first time since its 2009 closing, according to Urbanize Atlanta, which first reported on marketing materials from listing agent Cushman & Wakefield. The publication's images show floor-to-ceiling windows, ceiling heights ranging from 16 to 25 feet, and an indoor track with sweeping downtown views.

Each of the club's two floors measures just over 37,000 square feet, with the whole property totaling about 74,122 square feet. Inside, would-be tenants will find a full-size basketball court and a large empty swimming pool left over from the gym's heyday, when it operated as a full-service athletic facility with personal training, an indoor lap pool, a running track, and spinning and Pilates studios, per Creative Loafing Atlanta.

A Presidential Workout Spot

The gym's most famous member may have been Barack Obama. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Obama and his team worked out at the Peachtree Center Athletic Club in 2008, around the time of a Cobb County town hall meeting. That bit of history adds some star power to a space that has otherwise sat dormant for well over a decade.

Lease rates for the space have not been publicly disclosed, and the terms are described as negotiable. Ownership has committed to capital improvements set to arrive by January 2027, including modernized elevators and more efficient parking ticketing with license-plate readers, according to Cushman & Wakefield's marketing materials as relayed by the same report.

Gift Shops, Galleries, and Open-Air Terraces

Marketers have also floated conceptual renderings imagining what could replace the old locker rooms and workout floors. Per the renderings, ideas include a gift shop, café, gallery, and bar or lounge, along with large open terraces — concepts that were discussed on the Sunbelt Developers podcast. Whether any of those non-traditional concepts pencil out remains to be seen, since the marketing effort is, at this stage, still seeking ideas and substantial capital for a revival.

The gym sits above a 966-space covered garage operated 24/7, offering direct entrance points along Courtland Street and serving nearby hotels, office towers, and Georgia State University, according to Downtown Atlanta Inc. The property also has covered, tunnel-based access to MARTA, Peachtree Center's food and shopping, AmericasMart Atlanta, and major hotels — connections that run through what are informally known as architect John Portman's “hamster tubes.”

A Landmark Complex Under Financial Pressure

The gym's relaunch comes as the broader Peachtree Center complex works through a rocky recent history. Miami-based Banyan Street Capital defaulted on more than $125 million in debt in September 2022, prompting lender SitusAMC to foreclose on six office towers and the Hub retail mall in what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has called Atlanta's largest commercial foreclosure since the Great Recession. Special servicer Torchlight Investors then hired real estate firm JLL last August to list 2.5 million square feet of Peachtree Center office towers and the Hub mall for sale, with an estimated portfolio value of $121 million, according to CoStar.

As of last August, office towers within the complex suffered vacancy rates ranging from 27.4% to 79.6%, well above the roughly 16.9% to 17.1% vacancy rate across the broader Downtown Atlanta office market, CoStar reported. Peachtree Center itself carries historic weight beyond its balance sheet: the 14-block district designed by architect-developer John C. Portman Jr. beginning in the 1960s was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in March 2018 for its significance in Brutalist architecture and urban planning, according to the U.S. National Park Service.

Part of a Larger Downtown Push

The gym listing lands amid a wave of downtown Atlanta investment aimed at drawing people back to the urban core ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Hoodline previously reported that MARTA began a multi-month renovation of the Peachtree Center Station entrances and restrooms this past March as part of a $1 billion transit upgrade tied to the tournament — work that directly touches the tunnels connecting to 227 Courtland St. NE.

Nearby, real estate firm CP Group debuted “The CTR” this past May, a $425 million multi-phase renovation of the former CNN Center into a dining, retail, and entertainment destination. And CIM Group's $5 billion Centennial Yards project has already opened entertainment and residential phases across 50 acres of the former Gulch, part of what CoStar describes as a broader, multi-billion-dollar revitalization of downtown Atlanta's commercial core.

Public safety remains part of that backdrop. A shooting at the adjacent Peachtree Center food court injured three people in June 2024, an incident Hoodline covered at the time, and one that underscores the challenges facing downtown commercial hubs as they try to attract new tenants. Whether the vacant athletic club can find a viable second act — as a gym again, or as something else entirely — will depend on how much capital a prospective tenant is willing to commit, and how ownership changes across Peachtree Center ultimately shape lease negotiations.