The Atlanta Hawks want to be a championship contender and the team believes its new sports and medicine facility in Brookhaven’s Executive Park will get it there.
The Brookhaven Chamber of Commerce hosted the Hawks’ General Manager Wes Wilcox and CFO Thad Sheely at its Oct. 4 breakfast meeting and learned more about the 90,000-square-foot facility now under construction.
“This has been a summer of change,” Wilcox said. “We’re excited this year, we’re very optimistic. Our goal is to be the most competitive while continuing to build toward being a championship contender.”
To do that, the team must acquire quality players and then provide the players with the care and development they need, he said.
The new facility is a partnership between the Hawks and Emory Healthcare and the city of Brookhaven. The privately funded facility will combine the Hawks’ training facility and Operations Department with 30,000 square feet dedicated to Emory sports medicine facilities, the first such facility in the NBA. Emory is also the team’s official sports medicine provider and got the naming rights to the facility. Emory’s entire Sports Medicine Center will move to the Brookhaven site as well.
The complex will also serve as the East Coast headquarters for Peak Performance Project, known as P3, “a world-leader in applied sports science that provides individualized training for elite athletes from across the globe – using data and science to give them a competitive edge.”
“This is really about player development and player care … and sports sciences, and this facility ties into all of that,” Wilcox said.
Wilcox said he envisions the Brookhaven complex will serve as a national and international training facility, where NBA players from around the country can practice and play during the off-season.
Sheely said when the Hawks were located in the “bowels of Philips Arena,” the players did not feel as though they were receiving the best care and training and that the new complex will change that.
“We’re going to create something unique and special,” he said.
The Emory/Hawks partnership is a $50 million deal for the land purchase and building construction with $14 million being covered by Emory University and the Hawks funding $36 million. Emory University will then provide a ground lease to the Hawks for the practice facility.
To secure the deal to have the Hawks and Emory located the facility in Brookhaven, city officials agreed to offer the Hawks a $36 million tax abatement.