For-Profit Trade School Grabs 150K SF Facility For Debut Georgia Location

A Phoenix-based for-profit trade school is planning to open its first Georgia campus in Smyrna.

Universal Technical Institute leased 150K SF, taking the entirety of 7100 Highlands Parkway, a flex industrial building off the East-West Connector in Cobb County, according to a press release.

The Atlanta facility will offer classes for auto, diesel and full-skilled trades, including welding, UTI CEO Jerome Grant said during a Feb. 5 earnings call.

“It’s completely greenfield for us,” Grant said. “We see a lot of opportunity, job growth, the demographics are great in that area, and we found what we believe is a fantastic location.”

The property is owned by EQT Real Estate, which bought the facility in 2021 for nearly $30M, according to Cobb County records. Messages to EQT were not returned as of press time.

The trade school, which operates its UTI segment as well as Concorde Career Colleges, posted fiscal year 2025 first-quarter net income of $22.2M, a 113% jump year-over-year. It also reported a 19% increase in new student enrollment for UTI campuses to 2,753.

The Atlanta location is one of three planned new UTI campuses that also includes Concorde-Heartland dental school in Fort Myers, Florida.

While a typical UTI school averages between 110K SF and 115K SF, the school had few other options in the Smyrna area.

“What it gives us [is] an opportunity … to take advantage of increasing capacity in some of the skilled trade areas where we are already seeing … very, very high demand,” Grant said on the earnings call. “It gives us the opportunity, potentially, to put some of our manufacturer-specific programs which aren’t in the original optimized model. I think we are going to fill that space nicely.”

UTI is expected to open the Smyrna trade school in 2026, pending state and U.S. Department of Education regulatory approvals, the company said.