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By: BO SHELL
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After 13 years on West Peachtree Street, AID Atlanta is on the move.
The relocation is designed to save the Southeast’s largest AIDS service organization hundreds of thousands of dollars in the next few years. The move is set for early July to a spot just a few blocks north at 1605 Peachtree St.
“Rent continues to be, particularly trying to stay in Midtown, one of our highest costs,” said Kim Anderson, executive director of AID Atlanta. “It’s a cost we can’t always get fully reimbursed from our government grants. One of our goals was if we could reduce our rental costs, it would help the fiscal security of the agency.”
Anderson compared the cost of leasing AID Atlanta’s current building for another six years with rent in a new location that considered convenience to clients.
“The difference was about $300,000 over a six year period,” she said. “We’re getting more bang for the buck, clearly. Not only is it saving us money, [the office] is being retrofitted to fit our needs.”
The new facility includes two floors of office, testing and clinic space directly across the street from the new Atlanta branch of Savannah College of Art & Design. Unlike the old location, the new space includes a free parking lot.
“Being on Peachtree will hopefully make us more recognizable and will hopefully bring in a different community,” Anderson said. “Hopefully, we’ll have more recognition and people will know where we are.”
The square footage is about the same as the old facility, but with the help of contractor donations, the new space should be more efficient.
“Heery International did our space planning, and it was based on talking to the staff and looking at the flow of people in and out of the office,” Anderson said.
Case managers are to be stationed in cubicles instead of private offices and can use one of eight meeting rooms for private consultations.
“When clients come, they’ll still have a confidential space to meet, but it won’t take as much square footage,” Anderson said.
The new plan allows space for an additional testing room, exam room and a community room that can serve multiple functions.
“The new community room will have the computers in it where clients and the community can do research and so forth, but we’ll have more materials for them to access on HIV, STDs and other information, and our hotline and volunteers will be in that room,” Anderson said. “In addition, it will also be a space where if a third party wanted to come in and do AIDS-related education, that’s where they’ll do it.”
The versatile meeting space can serve AID Atlanta’s diverse client list, including people with HIV/AIDS, students, and interested parties who are curious about the virus and looking for more information.
“I hope that people who want to have access to a space where they can do HIV-related programs or programs related to the communities we serve, they could find it here,” Anderson said.
Along with the space planners, a number of contractors donated resources to the project, including Skanska, Kaiser Permanente, GE, Commercial Carpet Specialists and Home Depot. Laslie-Williams and Joel Kelly Designs are providing additional design services.
Anderson said interested donors can get involved in the development of the new AID Atlanta office by naming the new conference rooms in honor of friends, partners and family members.
The organization plans an open house Aug. 13 for the public to take a peek at the new space. To accommodate the move, the West Peachtree location closed permanently on June 20.
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