A roughly 9-acre lot off Perry Boulevard in Northwest Atlanta that once held C.M. Pitts Elementary School is now at the center of a push to bring new housing to the area. Atlanta Public Schools has issued a call for development teams to propose a residential future for the site, with the district aiming to add housing that furthers the city's broader housing goals.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the former school site sits in a corridor historically centered on rail yards and large public housing projects, and the school itself was once located in an industrial stretch of Northwest Atlanta. Pitts Elementary was built as a Black school near the end of segregation and served the educational and community fabric of the neighborhood for decades before it was demolished more than a decade ago. The site was photographed this past Sunday, November 8, still showing the open lot where the school once stood.
Atlanta Public Schools, working with the Atlanta Urban Development Corporation, is formally launching a search for qualified development partners to transform the property at 2210 Perry Boulevard NW, according to Metro Atlanta CEO. The solicitation invites development teams to propose approaches for creating a high-quality, mixed-income residential community on the approximately 9-acre site.
What the Preliminary Vision Includes
The preliminary development vision contemplates a mixed-income residential community that would incorporate affordable and workforce rental housing alongside attainable homeownership opportunities, per the same outlet's report. Rather than locking in a final unit count or a single required layout, the request for qualifications leaves room for development teams to bring their own concepts to the table.
Development concepts may also incorporate community-serving uses such as childcare, healthcare, neighborhood retail, and other services, the report notes. APS and AUD have engaged commercial real estate firm CBRE to support the solicitation, developer outreach, and evaluation process. CBRE has said the redevelopment represents an opportunity to return publicly owned land to productive use while addressing the need for affordable and attainable housing, per the AJC's reporting.
Timeline and Neighborhood Context
The request for qualifications was scheduled for release on November 3, with statements of qualifications due December 18 following a 45-day solicitation period, Metro Atlanta CEO reports. The Pitts site also falls within an area shaped by the city's Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative, the Douglass Cluster DC360 initiative, and the Perry-Bolton Tax Allocation District planning process, according to the same account.
The Pitts solicitation is part of a larger effort by Atlanta to convert surplus school properties into housing and community space. That initiative spans eight properties covering more than 48 acres of land and vacant or underused facilities, according to Urbanize Atlanta, which also reports that a community engagement process featuring public forums, stakeholder meetings, and presentations to local organizations is planned before redevelopment moves forward.
How Other Former School Sites Are Taking Shape
Other surplus school properties in the city offer a glimpse of what could come next for Pitts. At the former Lakewood Heights Elementary School, Atlanta officials selected Ali-Graceline Development to lead a project that Urbanize Atlanta describes as including about 43,000 square feet of residences and 12,000 square feet of commercial space, with plans to preserve and adaptively reuse the 1932 school building. Accounts of that site's size differ: Urbanize Atlanta puts it at 2.1 acres, while a City of Atlanta description lists it at approximately 2.15 acres.
The former Peeples Street Elementary School site, meanwhile, was proposed as a 6.1-acre mixed-income residential community, according to the Atlanta Urban Development Corporation and Atlanta Public Schools. That plan envisions a mix of housing alongside community resources, greenspace, early learning, workforce development, and commercial or retail space, with submissions for that project having been due back in March.
Fitting Into a Regional Housing Push
The Pitts redevelopment search arrives as metro Atlanta grapples with a broader affordability crunch. The Atlanta Regional Commission's Housing Forward 2035 plan aims to build 367,000 units of housing across the region, with half affordable to households earning 80% of area median income, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting. The ARC has identified more than 100,000 vacant or underused properties regionwide and set a target of creating homes on 10% of those parcels, the station reports.
Separately, the City of Atlanta has established a public subsidies ordinance that applies to new multifamily rental developments with at least 10 units receiving a public subsidy, requiring a portion of those units to be set aside for lower-income households, according to the City of Atlanta. The vacant lot off Perry Boulevard is now being pitched as the next chapter in the city's push to turn empty school grounds into new homes.
