Featured photo: The former fire station was for sale in October. Eric Curl/Oct. 4, 2025
By Eric Curl
Dec. 12, 2025 – The Savannah College of Art and Design recently purchased the former city fire station at 6 West Henry St. for more than $3 million, according to public records.
SCAD already has a presence along the busy corridor. The building is located across the street from SCAD’s School of Fashion building, and down a block from Eckburg Hall, where fashion and accessory design are housed. A SCAD-owned diner, where Strange Bird operates, is also on the street one block to the east.
The purchase comes after Forest Park-based Evans Real Estate Investors purchased the property for about $2.75 million in August 2024, according to property records. Plans were submitted to renovate the building for what the previous owner, Jeff Notrica, said was going to be a local produce market, but that never materialized.
Notrica’s Inman Park Properties purchased the building from the city in 2019 for about $1 million. The Savannah City Council had approved the sale of the building in December 2018 after the company’s plan outscored two other proposals to acquire the site – partially due to the purchase price being double the other offers.
Inmans’ submitted plan was to renovate the building for use as an 80-seat neighborhood cafe, create 75 full-time jobs and activate the “somewhat stagnant block”, according to the proposal. Construction was to begin 120 days after closing and take one year to complete, as approved, but the building remains unused to this day.
Notrica said in 2024 that the cafe plan failed to materialize after a project partner was unable to come up with their end of the financing.
“That happens a lot in hospitably,” Notrica said. “A lot of people have great ambitions but not necessarily the financial backing to move forward.”
Built in 1947, the Henry Street building is located between two high-traffic corridors, Bull and Whitaker streets, in the Thomas Square Streetcar Historic District.
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MORE PROPERTY MATTERS
One more property being acquired by SCAD which will require more city services for which they pay no taxes! Ridiculous! When will people wake up and realize that SCAD is the problem with high taxes and high rents in .savannah. They pay no property taxes and that shifts the tax burden to every other property tax paying e tiny in the city. And they bring in 15,000 students which drive up the price of all rental housing locally! People wake up! You are allowing this to happen by your inaction! Get behind a grassroots effort to make SCAD pay user fees or something else which will support the cost of services for police, fire, ems and stormwater services which they receive for free and dump it on the backs of everyone else!