The new Arthur M. Blank Family Residences building is complete and will soon welcome its first guests. The 16-story tower is located just south of the Shepherd Center at 1860 Peachtree Road. Part of a major $360 million expansion and renovation of the Shepherd Center, the tower will double the center’s residential square footage with 165 new accessible housing units.
According to Shepherd Center, “The new residential tower will allow families and day program patients receiving life-saving neurorehabilitation services at the hospital who live more than 60 miles from Shepherd Center to remain in donor-funded housing for the entire duration of their loved one’s rehabilitation, alleviating the financial and emotional burden that comes with being away from home.”
The new tower was officially opened in August 2024 and will accommodate patients and their families from October.
Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons, is a longtime donor to the Shepherd Center. The Blank Family Foundation has made a $50 million grant to help fund the new Family Residences building. Earlier this year, Arthur Blank said in a statement, “Our family foundation is honored to support the Shepherd Center in helping more families heal together. We hope to ease some of the incredible burden of these types of traumas by having a safe, accessible place here in Atlanta to call home while they are away from their own homes, allowing families and patients to focus on their healing and each other at a time when it is most important and needed.”
Continuous expansion
Improvements at Shepherd Center include renovations to the center’s main campus to modernize patient rooms and expand the center’s capacity, as well as the new Marcus Center for Advanced Rehabilitation.
The Marcus Center for Advanced Rehabilitation, adjacent to the Shepherd Center’s main building, is scheduled to open in early 2025. Funded by an $80 million grant from longtime supporter The Marcus Foundation, the new 30,000-square-foot innovation institute will enable Shepherd Center to expand its day programs and outpatient services. Like fellow co-founder Home Depot, Bernie Marcus and his wife, Billi, have supported Shepherd Center for decades.
