Advantage Behavioral Health Systems has closed on a $2.8 million deal to buy the Clarke County School District’s former headquarters on Mitchell Bridge Road, the nonprofit announced today.
The school board approved the sale earlier this month.
“This property will allow us to consolidate three of our locations in one space, enabling us to reduce our overhead costs while expanding access to those we serve,” CEO O.J. Booker said in a news release.
Addictive disease programs and a 14-bed crisis unit on Miles Street; child and adolescent, residential, employment and day programs on Milledge Avenue; and the main adult mental health clinic on North Avenue will be moved to the 55,000 square-foot Mitchell Bridge building, which once was Charter Winds psychiatric hospital.
The building will require $2.3 million in renovations, with construction expected to begin in July and wrap up in February or March.
The 17-acre campus also gives Advantage space to expand its programs.
With school officials wanting to be closer to the city center, the CCSD administration has moved into the recently renovated H.T. Edwards building, alongside Classic City alternative high school and the career academy.
Long-term, administrators plan to renovate and move into the long-vacant West Broad School nearby. The sale of the old central office will provide part of the funding, while the rest will likely be part of a SPLOST project list voters will decide on in November.
Advantage, based in Athens, contracts with the state and local governments to provide mental health, addiction and developmental disability services in a 10-county area. It serves 11,000 clients per year and employs 385 people.
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