Peachtree City woos Atlanta Christian College

Peachtree City officials think their city and Atlanta Christian College are an ideal match.

They’ll make their formal presentation on Sept. 15 as college officials inch closer to deciding between Peachtree City and Newnan as the site of their new home. A final decision is expected as early as late October.

“It’s a quality-of-life element,” Matt Forshee, president and chief executive officer of the Fayette County Development Authority, said after Wednesday night’s meeting of a city task force on the matter.

Atlanta Christian College, he said, “has built itself as a family-oriented university. Peachtree City is very well-known as a family oriented community.”

Founded in 1937, Atlanta Christian College currently serves about 400 students at its East Point campus near Greenbriar Mall in southwest Atlanta.

Future plans to expand to 1,200 students prompted school officials to seek potential new campus sites that could handle the school’s increased needs so that it might relocate, possibly as soon as fall 2009.

School officials announced in May that they had narrowed their choices to Peachtree City and Newnan.

Peachtree City officials like their chances, given the affluent city’s demographics, low crime rate and high standard of living.

Ninety-two percent of the graduates of the city’s two high schools go on to college, Forshee said. The community also is noted for its bevy of golf cart users, its 90-plus miles of multi-use paths linking the city and its active lifestyle.

“I feel good we have an opportunity to bring together a relationship between Peachtree City and ACC for the long term,” said Doug Sturbaum, the City Council member who chairs the task force.

Newnan will likely counter that it is better-suited to host the college because it has permanent building and dormitory space already available. That city has existing buildings that could be converted to house the college.

Should Atlanta Christian choose Peachtree City, its new campus would be in the Wilksmoor Village development on the city’s west side. Wilksmoor also will have private homes, some age-restricted to those 55 and over. Fifty acres of the development will be set aside for the college.

Peachtree City officials estimate the college would have an economic impact of roughly $25 million on the municipality, Forshee said.

Wherever it moves, the college will continue to have a presence in East Point to accommodate students living in Atlanta and the closer-in suburbs, school spokeswoman Sarah Huxford said.