Protective Life building

This article is about the downtown building, for the building on Highway 280, see Protective Life headquarters.

The Protective Life building (also called the Commerce Center) is a 14-story, 168-foot-tall building located at 2027 1st Avenue North, on the southwest corner of Richard Arrington, Jr Boulevard North. It was constructed in 1928 to an art-deco design by the firm of Warren, Knight and Davis.

Beginning on New Year's Eve, 1929, radio station WAPI-AM broadcast from the top floor of the building.

The building was purchased by the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and adorned with a large vertical neon "Commerce Center" sign in the 1960s.

The chamber sold the property in 2002 to Atlanta's Inman Park Properties for $1.1 million. The developer relocated most of the tenants from the nearby Brown Marx Building to the Commerce Center in anticipation of redeveloping the larger tower into apartments. That project was later abandoned.

In 2009 the building's tenants were asked to relocate elsewhere.

References

• "Chamber finally sells Commerce Center" (September 11, 2002) Birmingham Business Journal
• Natta, André (February 24, 2009) "Downtown’s former Protective Life building empties" The Terminal

External links

• Commerce Center at Emporis.com