BROOKHAVEN, GA. — The Atlanta Hawks Basketball Club has received a $35 million refinancing loan for its Emory Sports Medicine Clinic in Brookhaven. The new National Black Bank Foundation organized the syndicate loan, with Carver State Bank serving as lead arranger. All contributing banks of the syndicate loan are Black-owned banks, which are classified as financial institutions where either 51 percent or more of the voting stock is owned by minority individuals or a majority of the board or directors and the community it serves are predominantly minority, according to Investopedia. The Hawks are the first professional sports organization to have a “significant” loan underwritten exclusively by Black-owned banks, according to the team. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the other member banks in the deal are Citizens Savings Bank, Citizens Trust Bank, Commonwealth National Bank, Industrial Bank, Liberty Bank & Trust, M&F Bank and Optus Bank.
The new loan replaces the original construction loan for the center, which was delivered in fall 2017. The 90,000-square-foot property contains the official training and practice facility of the Hawks, the hub of Emory Healthcare’s Sports Medicine program and Sports Science and Research division and the Peak Performance Project (P3). Emory Sports Medicine Clinic is situated at 1968 Hawks Lane, 10 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta and State Farm Arena, where the Hawks play their home games.