The Plaza
Regions Plaza is a 17-story, 240,000 square-foot office building at 417 20th Street at the corner of 5th Avenue North in downtown Birmingham. It was constructed on the former site of the Tutwiler Hotel, which was demolished for its construction. It was dedicated in October 1976 and served as the headquarters of First Alabama Bank, which changed its name to Regions Bank in 1992.
The architects for the building was Russell McCaleb & Associates with John Carl Warnecke & Associates of San Francisco, California. A gold-anodized aluminum frame divides the curtain-wall facades into three vertical sections with no cornice termination. The steel frame for the tower can be seen under construction in the 1976 feature film Stay Hungry.
On May 25, 2006, Regions announced a merger with AmSouth Bank. The following January it put the Regions Plaza building up for sale and made plans to consolidate headquarters operations into the neighboring Regions Center. The Regions Bank branch on the ground floor of the building closed on July 12, 2007, with its employees and accounts moving with the headquarters.
In April, 2007, it was announced that Harbert Realty Services of Birmingham and Concord Hospitality Enterprises Co. of Raliegh, North Carolina, planned to convert the office building into a four-star Marriott Renaissance hotel with 255 rooms [1]. The hotel will include 12,000 square feet of meeting and convention space, a fitness center and concierge services. Estimated cost for the project was $52 million. Regions workers completed their move in the summer of 2008. The developer hopes to begin construction in the Fall. The project will include leasable space for a steak house and a fitness center. Starbucks Coffee will operate from a lobby space.
In May 2008 a 700-space expansion of the adjacent Birmingham Parking Authority Deck 3 broke ground.
References
- Cooper, Lauren B. Regions' downtown headquarters to become four-star hotel April 30, 2007, Birmingham Business Journal, accessed July 13, 2007
- Cooper, Lauren B. (July 24, 2008) "Developers update ONB leaders on downtown projects." Birmingham Business Journal
External links
- Regions Plaza on Emporis.com