For-Profit Trade School Swings New Location At Atlanta Braves' Pennant Park
The Atlanta Braves have scored a new lease at their Pennant Park office complex.
Chattanooga College, a for-profit post-secondary school, signed an 11-year, 27K SF lease at the six-building, 763K SF office park down the street from Truist Park, Braves Development Co. announced Tuesday. The Major League Baseball team purchased Pennant Park last year.
The deal gives the technical college a debut presence in Metro Atlanta. It operates two campuses in Tennessee, including its main campus in Downtown Chattanooga, and focuses on healthcare programs such as nursing, radiology and surgical technology.
Chattanooga’s new campus will initially serve about 350 students per year and is projected to scale up to about 800 students annually within three years, Steven Read, president of Chattanooga College, said in a press release. The school expects to have about 145 employees once enrollment increases, he said. It is expected to open next year.
The college is the latest in a surge of for-profit technical schools, colleges and universities leasing space in Metro Atlanta in recent years.
Last year, post-secondary schools inked deals for a total of 400K SF of commercial space in the metro area, up from 215K SF a year earlier, according to data compiled by Colliers Research Manager Jonathan Koes.
Universal Technical Institute leased perhaps the largest chunk of space, taking 150K SF last year for all of 7100 Highlands Parkway in Cobb County for automotive, diesel and full-skilled trade training, such as welding.
UTI also leased 47,300 SF for its Concorde Career Colleges at the Lee + White adaptive reuse campus in Atlanta’s Westside. The school, which is focused on nursing, dental and patient care, will be home to 700 students once it opens in 2027, Urbanize Atlanta reported.
“Georgia has one of the fastest-growing construction markets in the country, with more than 180,000 open skilled trade positions. With such great need in workforce development, it is critical for Atlanta to expand the education and training pipeline for the most in-demand jobs,” Jason Altmire, CEO of private trade school association Career Education Colleges and Universities, said in an emailed statement.
“For-profit trade schools are coming into the Atlanta area to help the state address this severe workforce shortage,” he added.
Jennifer Koontz, managing director at Pope & Land Real Estate, said her firm has seen an influx of post-secondary schools scouting for office space in the metro region. Those schools leased an average of 350K SF per year between 2020 and 2023, according to Colliers.
The Atlanta Braves have experienced a revenue boon from the organization’s real estate holdings, especially the mixed-use development The Battery Atlanta, where the team plays its home games at Truist Park. Its mixed-use revenues rose from $18.6M in the first quarter of 2025 to $26.3M in the first quarter this year, Braves Executive Vice President Jill Robinson said during an earnings call this week.
And demand to occupy office space at the Braves’ properties continues to mount, Lamar Wakefield, national mixed-use practice leader at Nelson Worldwide, said during a Bisnow mixed-use stadium event earlier this month.
Wakefield, who has helped the Braves design the commercial real estate of The Battery, said the team already shifted a site originally reserved for apartments to make way for TKE Elevator’s testing tower. Wakefield said during last week’s event that he and the Braves are working with potential office users on two other sites at The Battery.
“Why are we going to build more office? Well, everybody wanted to be here,” he said. “That’s where all of our power is from, The Battery and the stadium and everything that was sitting right there.”
