Photo by Eric Taunton.
Medical Properties Trust President and CEO Edward Aldag speaks at a September announcement of the business’ plan to build a new headquarters in Liberty Park.
Medical Properties Trust, a real estate investment company specializing in healthcare facilities, recently announced a brand new, state of the art headquarters for the Birmingham area coming to Vestavia Hills.
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, said Bruce McEvoy, design director at Perkins and Will.
“MPT started in Birmingham,” said Ed Aldag, president and CEO of Medical Properties Trust. “We’ve been around for 20 years and we’ve grown from zero to nearly 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.”
The Drummond Company offered land to MPT that is located down the road from their current office building, Aldag said.
Aldag said he approached McEvoy to design the new headquarters to be the most environmentally friendly facility in the state.
“It’ll be the most environmentally friendly building built here in Alabama and certainly here in Birmingham,” Aldag said. “We’re excited to be the headquarters for Medical Properties Trust for many years after Bruce and I are gone.”
The building was modeled after a property that EBSCO built on top of Oak Mountain, he 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 on the building began the week of Sept. 26, with construction expected to be finished in 2025, she said.
In late September, residents and city leaders expressed their excitement about the construction of the new building at a gathering at the current MPT headquarters.
“On behalf of the City of Vestavia Hills, I wanted to add that this is outstanding and exciting,” said Vestavia Hills City Councilor George Pierce. “I hope there’s an opportunity for our Vestavia Hills students to watch this project, study it. If you haven’t met [Vestavia Hills City Schools Superintendent Todd] Freeman, I’d like to introduce you to him. I can see Vestavia Hills students, elementary through high school, wanting to study this and see what you do.”
Aldag said he is passionate about the MPT headquarters being in Birmingham.
“I think this is a trifecta of an experience in that it’s 200 jobs which any community would love and then it’s healthcare, which is what we know we do really well here in our region,” an audience member said. “To Vestavia, Birmingham and the entire county, hats off to you guys. This is truly an amazing opportunity for our region, not just Birmingham and not just Vestavia. I truly see this as catalytic in nature… We stand ready to continue to being a native support your efforts.’”
He said MPT board member Steve Dawson can attest that “the very first thing my employment contract says is that they have to pay me a lot of money to move the headquarters outside of Birmingham.”
“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.”
