Atlanta Public Schools has agreed to lease the parking lot of a former school to a construction company building nearby apartments.
The future of the old Hubert Elementary School site in the Reynoldstown neighborhood has been a subject of scrutiny for several years.
The vacant schoolhouse was built in the 1920s. About six years ago, the school board decided to lease the property to WonderRoot, a nonprofit arts organization that planned to renovate the school into artist studios.
WonderRoot announced last year that it was closing down, and the lease agreement was terminated.
Now, the school system will lease the 10,700-square foot parking lot to Prestwick Construction Co. for 18 months. The district will charge a monthly rent of $2,452, and Prestwick also will maintain the lawn, according to school board documents.
The lot will be used for parking and for a mobile office while crews are building a nearby five-story, 205-unit apartment complex. The property under development is on Memorial Drive, two blocks from the Atlanta Beltline extension.
The former Hubert school was among dozens of properties involved in a deed dispute between APS and the City of Atlanta. In February of 2018, the city turned over the Hubert site and others caught up in the legal battle to the school district.
District officials will decide what to do with school properties such as the Hubert site after the completion of a facilities master plan, said APS spokesman Seth Coleman. That plan will guide decisions about which properties the district should sell, which ones it should keep and what construction projects are needed.
Completion of the facilities plan has been delayed by the coronavirus closures.
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