SAVANNAH ― This historic city’s first public schoolhouse sits along a route of architectural treasures, a real estate yellow brick road flanked by majestic halls of justice and government, revered houses of worship, grand residences and glittering theaters.
The old Chatham Academy at 208 Bull St. is as architecturally striking as the others. The facade of the two-building complex — the first built in 1813 and the second almost a century later — is brick and granite, marked by towering columns and decorative masonry work.
Yet, while its neighbors have aged gracefully, the building known to locals simply as “208” has languished as a low investment priority while the elected members of the Savannah-Chatham Board of Education, the public K-12 school system, squabbled over the property’s future.
Structural conditions deteriorated to the point where water ran down interior walls when it rained and mushrooms grew in dark recesses — posing health risks to occupants, the district’s administrative staff. In the meantime, the value of the property spiked, appraising for $18 million in 2024.
Credit: Sarah Peacock
Credit: Sarah Peacock
The situation forced action, with the school board agreeing in December to repurpose 208 as the home of a specialty education program focused on architecture, urban design and historic preservation, known as the Bull Street Center for Architecture and Design. The building renovation, projected to cost at least $85 million, is to be completed in 2030.
But as administrative staff moved out of 208 this summer, a would-be purchaser of the property, hotelier Richard Kessler, went public with his objections to the board’s decision. Kessler’s protests center on his proposal to buy the property at fair market value and spend an additional $130 million to convert it into a Smithsonian-quality museum. He would also build a 90-room boutique hotel and fine dining restaurant on the site to fund the museum.
Kessler shared his vision with the school board in early 2024 by responding to a school board call for redevelopment concepts. Kessler’s submission was not revealed to the public — or even mentioned during board discussions about 208’s future — before the decision to create the Bull Street Center for Architecture and Design.
Kessler’s plan and six other responses, including one from a group involved in Atlanta’s Ponce City Market redevelopment in the early 2010s, didn’t become publicly available until after the primary funding mechanism for the 208 renovation was secured via an education special purpose local option sales tax vote (ESPLOST).
Board members, including President Roger Moss, defend the process. The redevelopment responses were part of a request for information, not a request for proposals that would demand public review and presentations. And because 208’s future was a real estate matter, Kessler’s submission, along with the others, was exempt from the Georgia Open Records Act until after the ESPLOST vote. The exemption is meant to prevent unfair advantages or disruptions to ongoing transactions.
Kessler views the behind-closed-doors review of his plan and the others as an intentional dodge by the board to hide alternative ideas for 208 from the public.
“I think if the public knew the facts of this deal, they would be mad as hell about it and would say, ‘Stop what you’re planning to do and do this instead,’” Kessler said. “We need this museum.”
Credit: Sarah Peacock
Credit: Sarah Peacock
Museum vs. education center
Kessler ranks among the most successful businessmen in Savannah’s history. Born in the city and raised in nearby Effingham County, he made his fortune half a century ago by helping his mentor, Cecil Day, establish one of America’s first budget-friendly motel chains, Days Inn. He was a full partner with significant equity when the company sold for $300 million in 1984.
He went on to pioneer the luxury boutique hotel segment through his Kessler Collection of hotels, which includes Plant Riverside, a $375 million redevelopment of a century-old power plant along the Savannah waterfront.
A hallmark of Kessler’s hotels is the fine art and artifacts displayed in lobbies, meeting rooms and other public areas. Kessler is a self-described “collector of beautiful things,” be they fossils, sculptures, paintings, arrowheads, watches, even dueling pistols, and he has four warehouses full of things he’s collected. He envisions 208 as the Savannah Collectors Museum, with 55 galleries displaying not only his treasures but those on loan from other collectors from around the world.
Several school board members talked to in recent weeks following the release of Kessler’s plan have lauded his museum idea as beautiful and inspirational. They said they had no doubt Kessler could have delivered a world-class museum at 208. But they also acknowledged that a majority of board members were not willing to vote to sell the property.
Credit: Sarah Peacock
Credit: Sarah Peacock
The request for information solicitation acted, in part, to prod board members to take a detailed look at alternative uses for 208. Those included public-private partnerships as well as an outright sale, which would generate $18 million or more for district priorities and return a valuable site to the property tax rolls, producing even more dollars for the school system.
In an August 2024 discussion about 208’s future, one of the board’s newer members, Denise Grabowski, floated the specialty architecture and design program idea. The property’s location in the heart of the historic district — one of America’s foremost examples of a well-planned city — presented it as a “living classroom.” The program could be open to students from all the district’s schools.
The proposal addressed the main hurdle to 208’s redevelopment: funding the renovations. Savannah-Chatham has renovated or built dozens of new schools in recent decades using ESPLOST, a 1% sales tax on most services and goods purchased in the county. But for ESPLOST to be used for capital projects, the property must have an educational use.
With an ESPLOST referendum looming in March 2025, the timing of a decision to create the Bull Street Center for Architecture and Design was ideal.
“We’re in the education business, and I love this idea,” Moss, the school board president, said. “Before, I was in the sell camp for pragmatic reasons: I didn’t see a way to fund a project this expensive. But this new direction fits my philosophy.”
Credit: Sarah Peacock
Credit: Sarah Peacock
Renewed push by Kessler
About 12% of projected ESPLOST revenues have been designated for the Bull Street Center for Architecture and Design. Should the 208 makeover exceed $85 million, the district has earmarked proceeds from the sale of surplus properties to cover the shortfall.
Kessler suspects the 208 makeover will experience significant cost overruns. District leaders have acknowledged that “surprises wait behind those walls,” and the work is expected to include expensive lead paint and asbestos remediation.
Kessler wants the school board to reconsider his Savannah Collectors Museum proposal before beginning construction in September 2026.
Credit: Sarah Peacock
Credit: Sarah Peacock
He’s offered to incorporate educational elements into the museum and make part of the facility available to the school board to hold meetings and functions.
“What they’re thinking about doing is going to be a failure, and that’s going to be more money down the drain, a loss of time and a loss of opportunity,” he said. “These opportunities come in straight lines most of the time, and if you don’t take advantage of them when they’re in front of you, they move on.”
Moss said the decision to turn 208 into the Bull Street Center for Architecture and Design is a “done deal.” He and other school board members say Kessler’s renewed push disregards one key element of the 208 debate: that the property is the birthplace of public education in Savannah and that it is the most prominent district-owned facility in the city core.
Selling 208 to Kessler or another developer would shrink the school district’s downtown presence and mean less student exposure to the historic district. A program such as the Bull Street Center for Architecture and Design does the opposite.
“What Mr. Kessler’s wanting to do I’d love to see in Savannah,” said Grabowski, the school board member and a professional urban planner who planted the seed for the new vision for 208, “but not at the expense of our students.”
Credit: Sarah Peacock
Credit: Sarah Peacock
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