Non-Profits to Provide Extra Care for People, Animals

By Georgiana Mihaila, Associate Editor

Atlanta’s oldest non-religious non-profit charitable organization has made public its plans of relocating from downtown, opting for the suburbs. The Atlanta Humane Society is now in possession of seven acres at 1565 Mansell Road in north Fulton County that have been purchased for $10 million–of which $6 million was the acquisition of a former Car Max dealership and another $4 million went for renovations.

The main reason why the organization decided to leave its 138-year-old home downtown is the possibility to shelter twice as many animals as before, allowing for as many as 12,000 cat and dog adoptions yearly and even more spay/neuter surgeries. According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the $50,000-per-square-foot shelter will also employ as many as 150 people. The new site will officially open sometime around Thanksgiving.

WellStar Kennestone also seems to be in need of more space, given the recent announcement of a new seven-floor tower to be added to the Marietta facility. The hospital will soon break ground on the $38 million project, with the goal of converting WellStar Kennestone Hospital to a “primarily private in-patient-room campus,” according to WellStar Health System spokesperson Keith Bowermaster.

Site-planning work on the new tower has already begun, with an official groundbreaking planned sometime this month. The new tower will replicate the existing one, and the current number of beds will remain at 633, since the existing double-occupancy rooms will be transformed into private rooms to increase patient satisfaction. The completion date is set for fall 2012.

The public WellStar Kennestone hospital is owned by Cobb County’s Kennestone Hospital Authority, while WellStar Health System is the non-profit organization leasing Kennestone from the authority.