
Photo courtesy of Eric Taunton
Ed Aldag, the president and CEO of Medical Properties Trust, on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, announces the company plans to build a new headquarters near its current building in the Liberty Park community in Vestavia Hills, Alabama.
Medical Properties Trust, a real estate investment company specializing in health care facilities, recently announced it will build a new headquarters in Vestavia Hills.
The lease at the company's current headquarters at 1000 Urban Center Drive in Liberty Park is expiring in a few years, and the company has outgrown its space, so it was time to start looking for something else, CEO and President Ed Aldag said.
The Drummond Co. offered land to Medical Properties Trust that is located down the road from its current building, Aldag said.
Aldag said he approached Bruce McEvoy, the design director at Perkins and Will, and asked him to design the new headquarters to be the most environmentally friendly facility in the state. The building will make the surrounding forest visible from anywhere in the building and will harvest its own electricity from the sun and its own water from rainfall, McEvoy said.
The building was modeled after a property that EBSCO built on top of Oak Mountain, Aldag said.
“I fell in love with it the very first time I went there and saw the stream running under the building,” Aldag said. “When we got this particular site and I saw what we could do… this was always the vision.”
Construction was expected to begin this week and be finished in 2025.
Aldag noted that Medical Properties Trust was founded in the Birmingham area. “We’ve been around for 20 years, and we’ve grown from zero to 200 employees and own approximately 450 hospitals across the world. Our lease here — 1000 Urban Center Drive, Suite 501 — was coming up in a few years; we’ve outgrown the space so it was time to start looking for something else," he said.
Vestavia Hills Councilman George Pierce said Medical Properties Trust's announcement is exciting and outstanding news for the city. “I hope there’s an opportunity for our Vestavia Hills students to watch this project, study it," Pierce said.
Aldag said he is passionate about the headquarters remaining in the Birmingham area.
“As the mayor knows, I am one of Birmingham’s biggest cheerleaders,” Aldag said. “I have the opportunity to host people from all over the world, and I do absolutely everything I can to sing the praises of Birmingham. Not being a native here — I grew up in south Alabama — this has been a fabulous place to raise a family, and I appreciate everyone so very much. This is the most welcoming place I’ve ever moved to.”