Piedmont College’s next Athens campus home will be a modern, four-story brick building at 1282 Prince Avenue.
The 32,700-square-foot edifice is still under construction and is located about half a mile from the current campus. The college plans to move into the new space in early 2021, around the time the institution’s name will change to Piedmont University.
Piedmont’s main campus is located in Demorest. The college announced last week that it had entered into a lease-purchase agreement for the institution’s current Athens campus at 595 Prince Avenue. That property, a former church campus, and private school has served as Piedmont’s Athens home since 2006.
“This move opens an exciting new chapter for Piedmont,” says Piedmont College President James Mellichamp. “Next year, we will have a new name and a modern, new Athens home.”
Mellichamp says the upgrade reflects the school’s “transformational growth” and its emergence as a regional liberal arts university. He says the new campus illustrates Piedmont’s “enduring commitment” to the Athens-Clarke County community.
Within walking distance of downtown Athens
The new campus is located within walking distance of Athens’ historic downtown district. Piedmont will be the sole tenant of the building, which the school says will feature an interior “flooded with natural light” as well as a 160-space parking lot.
Piedmont says the move will have little impact on the approximately 500 students and 50 faculty and staff who study and work on the Athens campus. The institution offers undergraduate programs in nursing, business, education, criminal justice, psychology, and sociology and graduate degrees in education and business.
Piedmont has transitioned many classes and courses to an online or hybrid format in recent years. And school officials say the new campus space in Athens will give the college greater flexibility to meet the changing demands of non-traditional students.
