Wachovia (now SHIPT) Tower, Major Building Renovation; Main Lobby, M.E.P. Upgrades, Birmingham, AL

The Shipt Tower is a 34-story, 454-foot (138 m) tall office building in Birmingham, Alabama. Built in 1986 as the corporate headquarters for SouthTrust Corp., and was known as the SouthTrust Tower until 2005. SouthTrust merged with Wachovia and it became the Wachovia Tower in 2010. In 2020, Shipt, a local start-up and subsidiary of the Target Corp. became the anchor tenant of the building and the Tower was rebranded as the Shipt Tower. The building was developed by Johnston-Rast & Hays and designed by architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Giattina, Fisher & Aycock. Brice Building Company was the contractor for the project. It became the tallest building in Alabama and held that distinction until 2006.

The Wachovia Tower was acquired by Barry Real Estate Companies (BREC) during the early 2000’s. BREC decided to completely renovate the entire Main Lobby, the Elevator Lobbies and Restrooms on 6 Floors, and completely replace:
(1) the Building’s HVAC Control System,
(2) Building’s Security System, and
(3) Fire Control System in an occupied Building. This was a Property Manager’s worst nightmare.

Because of a previous 7-year working relationship at Portman-Barry Investments, the Principals at BREC felt comfortable outsourcing this entire complicated, difficult package(s) of work to CRESG while maintaining responsibility for and a watchful eye on the work. This work took almost 3 years to complete and was done concurrently with the design, construction and turnover of 6 floors of high-end legal office space for Burr-Forman (see Burr-Forman Project Pages). Today, the building’s largest tenant is law firm Burr & Forman. It is also a regional headquarters for Wells Fargo, the second largest tenant, and home to the Birmingham office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz and Deloitte.