By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

A Florida-based wholesale tire company recently moved its headquarters to a building on U.S. 31 in Pelham, according to the Birmingham-based EGS Commercial Real Estate company.

Wholesale Tire will move its company from Milton, Fla., to Pelham after the company leased 18,000 square feet of space from Virginia College, which owns the large building on U.S. 31 near the Shelby Mart shopping center.

“The deal was signed in the first of November, so it was completed about a month ago,” said Hurston Raley, a broker at EGS Commercial Real Estate. “The owner (Ted Allen) is from the Pelham area, so it is more of a move back home for him.

“He moved down to Florida for the business, but he is moving it back here,” Raley said.

Wholesale Tire’s Pelham location will serve as a warehouse for the company’s inventory, which is shipped across the country, Allen said.

“It’s more of a wholesale operation, and we ship to several states,” Allen added.

The Virginia College building also serves as a regional warehouse for the Alabama Math and Science Initiative program, which distributes educational math and science kits to public elementary, middle and high schools throughout the state.