Shepherd Center Hosts Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony for Arthur M. Blank Family Residences

For some Shepherd Center patients and families, their home away from home has a new address.

Shepherd Center recently celebrated the opening of the Arthur M. Blank Family Residences, located at 1860 Peachtree Road, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Located just south of Shepherd Center, the 16-floor building will more than double Shepherd Center’s housing capacity, adding 165 new accessible units. The tower will welcome its first guests in October.

With the support of a $50 million capital grant from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, the new housing tower will allow families and day program patients who live more than 60 miles from Shepherd Center to stay in donor-funded housing for the full duration of their loved one’s rehabilitation, helping ease the financial and emotional burden of being away from home.

More than half of Shepherd Center’s patients come from outside of Georgia. Because families and loved ones are an essential part of the rehabilitation journey, their presence allows them to provide comfort and encouragement to their loved ones while also undergoing family training in preparation for returning to their communities. Previously, due to space constraints and availability, Shepherd Center could only provide housing for families for 30 days, while the average length of stay for patients is nearly twice that. In addition to the new housing, Shepherd Center also has 84 units on campus with an additional 36 units nearby.

“Family involvement in rehabilitation has been a pillar of our care since the Shepherd family and Dr. Apple founded Shepherd Center nearly 50 years ago,” said Sarah Morrison, PT, MBA, MHA, CEO of Shepherd Center. “With the expansion of our housing program, we will reduce the financial and emotional burden on our patients’ families so they can focus on learning how to support their loved ones and each other through rehabilitation and as they return to their communities.”

The new building includes 165 apartments – 65 two-bedroom and 100 one-bedroom – and has multiple amenities available to families, including a communal kitchen, meeting rooms, a library, a recreation room with a pool table, arcade games, and a children’s corner. Just outside the recreation room is an outdoor garden with a grill space and fountain wall. Additionally, the garden is the new home to the iconic bison statue that once stood on the space once occupied by Ted’s Montana Grill. 

The housing expansion is part of Pursuing Possible: The Campaign for Shepherd Center, which funds capital and programmatic projects to benefit patients and families experiencing the most complex conditions, including spinal cord and brain injuries, multi-trauma, traumatic amputations, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and pain. The campaign also includes a significant investment in innovation with the launch of the Marcus Center for Advanced Rehabilitation, which will open in Spring 2025 with the support of an $80 million grant from The Marcus Foundation .

About Shepherd Center

With five decades of experience, Shepherd Center provides world-class clinical care, research, and family support for people experiencing the most complex conditions, including spinal cord and brain injuries, multi-trauma, traumatic amputations, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and pain. An elite center ranked by U.S. News as one of the nation’s top hospitals for rehabilitation, Shepherd Center is also recognized as both Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems. Shepherd Center treats thousands of patients annually with unmatched expertise and unwavering compassion to help them begin again.