DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A basketball facility that has helped thousands of young people in Dekalb County for the last three decades is in danger of closing down for good to make space for a movie soundstage.
It's not just a basketball facility, International Sports Arena, runs financial literacy classes and teaches conflict resolution to the kids and teenagers who come through their doors.
But now, a real estate deal is forcing them out of Stone Mountain.
"This place is like a home for me," Josiah Hanna, a 14-year-old at the facility, said. "I grew up in here."
Hanna comes and shoots basketball around with his friends and works the concessions with his mom; his dad, Robert Hanna, co-owns the place.
"There's not a day that goes by that I don't have a kid or an adult who comes in here and says this place saved my life. If I wasn't in here, I would be doing something I shouldn't be doing," Coach Vincent Rosser, who runs the facility with Robert Hanna, said.
The two men have helped thousands of kids who have played on their courts find a place in the ISA family. The center sees about 5,000 kids come through their courts every weekend, touching the lives of around 350,000 people each year.
"It takes a village to raise a child, and I think we provide a certain component of that village," said Coach Rosser.
He said they were notified 60 days ago they would have to vacate the facility that houses their village at the end of July.
The owners of the expansive strip mall have filed paperwork with Dekalb County to turn the property into a soundstage for Georgia's movie business.
But Josiah's father said the real lives of these kids are playing out right in front of them.
"If not here, where? It's got to be somewhere on this stretch of 285 from Memorial to Stone Mountain," Robert Hanna said. "We gotta do something for the kids."
With soaring real estate costs and rent spiking across the state, they have not been able to find a new home for their courts. They said they need to stay in the same area because that's where the kids need it most, where their family is.
"It breaks my heart because every day some kid or parents asks me, 'where are we going, coach? Where do we go next?'" Rosser said. "And it's in God's hands now."
The deal isn't done yet; the strip mall owners are still trying to get through the Dekalb County Zoning Commission, and Coach Rosser said the county commissioners have shown support and came out to watch a few games.
Still, the two gym owners don't know where they will go if they leave and they must be out by July 31.