South Medical Plaza

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The South Medical Plaza, formerly the McCollough Aesthetic Medical Center and Birmingham Health Care Medical Plaza, was a 3-story medical office building located at 1600 20th Street South (officially 1600 Richard Arrington Jr Boulevard South). It was built in 1968.

In the 1990s the building housed the plastic surgery clinic of McCollough, Grotting & Associates, and became known as the McCollough Aesthetic Medical Center.

The non-profit Birmingham Health Care purchased the building from McCollough in 2002 for $2.6 million, renaming it Birmingham Health Care Medical Plaza. In 2008 BHC's CEO Jonathan Dunning partnered with two other employees, Terri Mollica and Patricia Osborne, to purchase the building through a separate company, Synergy Real Estate Holdings for $2.8 million. Through their efforts, BHC was awarded federal grant money which it used to renovate the building and repave the parking lot. In 2016 Dunning and Mollica were convicted of fraud for a wide-ranging scheme to funnel public money into their own hands.

In the aftermath of the prosecution of its former executives, Birmingham Health Care renamed itself Alabama Regional Medical Services (ARMS) and continued to operate a medical clinic and pharmacy from the building, until relocating to the former Cooper Green Mercy Hospital building in March 2018.

Part of the building was converted into the Plaza Square Apartments. On December 28, 2018 a fire broke out in a vacant top floor unit. Two people were rescued from the fire, one of whom, Carley Eugene Vinson, later died. Investigators determined that the fire was intentionally set and charged John Edwin Burton with capital murder.

The building was demolished in August 2019.

Occupants

References

  • Murphree, Jennifer (October 17, 1999) "McCollough clinic, other properties on auction block in November." Birmingham Business Journal
  • Oliver, Mike (August 19, 2012) "Birmingham Health Care's CEO became its landlord, renting space from his businesses." The Birmingham News
  • Worthy, Ariel (September 13, 2018) "Birmingham health center welcomes everyone with open ARMS." The Birmingham Times
  • Robinson, Carol (January 10, 2019) "63-year-old man killed in Birmingham fire deemed victim of homicide; suspect charged in blaze." The Birmingham News