By Eric Curl
July 29, 2024 – Developers behind a planned multi-family housing project on Bull Street south of Victory Drive recently sold their properties to the Savannah College of Art and Design for more than $10 million.
Washington, DC-based MED Developers sold the site of the now shuttered Bull Street Estate Sales and Consignment building at 2819 Bull, along with some surrounding vacant parcels, to SCAD on July 17 for almost $6.5 million, according to sales records. In addition, Savannah-based DAI Commercial sold adjacent parcels included in the approved 2-acre development north of 45th St. for $3.7 million, records show. Neither company immediately responded to requests for comment made Friday.
A SCAD spokesperson said in a statement on Friday that the university would be completing the previously approved development for use as student housing complex that is expected to open in the fall of 2026.
Located north of 45th St., east of an active railroad line and west of Bull, the triangular shaped project site is just south of the protected Streetcar Historic District, so is not subject to the neighborhood’s design provisions. The city approved the site plan for the 3-story, 181-unit building in April after it was initially submitted in June 2023, according to public records.
The new student housing would be located immediately to the west of SCAD’s Victory Village dormitory complex along Victory. Bull Street Estates Sales and Consignment relocated last year to 1101 Eisenhower Drive after operating at the site for about 15 years. The now vacant building is set to be demolished, as a small apartment building next to it recently was, according to the approved site plan.
The acquisition at Bull and 45th is the latest apartment building project the growing university bought from private commercial developers. Such investment’s include SCAD’s acquisition in 2018 of what was the newly built One West Victory apartment building to convert and include in what is now a multi-building Victory Village housing complex along the corridor, as reported in Savannah Morning News at the time.
In 2020, SCAD acquired the former Chatham Apartments building at 609 Abercorn St. from a private developer who had purchased and vacated what was a low-income housing complex about one year beforehand.
Due to its status as a nonprofit, most of SCAD’s properties are exempt from property taxes, as long as they are used for educational purposes, including student housing. That exemption was most recently applied in April to SCAD’s new 17-story dormitory next to the Talmadge Bridge, as previously reported.
A consulting firm hired by the university found that the university’s economic impact on the Savannah area in fiscal year 2023 was $1 billion, representing the direct impact of spending in Savannah ($255.1 million) and indirect spending because of SCAD’s presence ($744.9 million), according to a recent press release.
The university’s net worth increased by almost $220 million to more than $1.5 billion during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2023, according to the nonprofit’s most recent IRS tax report, as reported this week.
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“A consulting firm hired by the university….” As I learned many years ago, you stand where you sit. Any entity hired by SCAD won’t find against this horrific “non-profit” which continues to eat up any and all real estate in the city and county.
This has to stop. It’s getting out of hand.
Here’s an idea for SCAD. For each complex you build, build one for the service workers of the city so that they might continue to serve and live near their work!
Ridiculous. Economic impact which SCAD has on the community is irrelevant. SCAD consumes major amount of municipal services for Police, Fire and EMS and Stormwater systems, yet they pay nothing to support it. Their refusal to even enter into a PILOT agreement with the city by default dumps all that cost on the Property Tax paying citizens of Savannah, making it more and more costly to live here ane less and less affordable. In my opinion, SCAD is a blight on the city of Savannah taxpayers because they do not directly contribute to the cost of municipal services which they consume. What is the city administration going to do when there are no tax paying properties left in Savannah, and the only property owners are government and SCAD?? How are you going to finance your city services and government payrolls then?? Time for Mayor Johnson the the City Aldermen to wake up and start pushing SCAD into a PILOT agreement.!!!
I was VERY disappointed to see the destruction of a very large, very old live oak tree just to the south of your photo Eric. I wish it had been incorporated into the site plan of this large complex – it should have been a feature of the site – not removed as an obstacle.