Lathrop & Gage signs on for BKD HQ

Lathrop & Gage LLP has signed a multiyear lease in the downtown building that is home to the national headquarters of accounting firm BKD LLP.

The Kansas City-based law firm is planning a first-quarter 2013 move of its Springfield office, 1845 S. National Ave., to 19,000 square feet on the first floor of BKD’s 910 St. Louis Street headquarters. The deal marks the first tenant activity outside of anchor BKD in the three years since construction crews completed the 109,000-square-foot, four-story building.

“They were worth the wait,” said Curtis Jared, chief operating officer of building owner Jared Enterprises Inc. “This is really a quality tenant.”

Springfield property management firm Jared Enterprises in 2010 purchased the $21.5 million property that Kansas City developer Opus Northwest LLC built in 2009 to pave the way for BKD’s move from Hammons Tower.

Jared Enterprises had been marketing the property for roughly 18 months at one point at $22.95 per square foot, including utilities and janitorial services. Though representatives of both parties declined to disclose terms of the more than five-year lease, Lathrop & Gage’s monthly rent based on the list price would be more than $36,000.

Commercial broker Sperry Van Ness/Rankin Co. negotiated the deal on behalf of Lathrop & Gage, and officials say the downtown site – at the southwest corner of St. Louis and John Q. Hammons Parkway, across from the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce – was a key factor for the law firm.

“To be in the central business district and close to other professionals – obviously, BKD, the many professionals in the Hammons Tower, and close to the chamber of commerce where so many of us are active – we just thought it was an excellent opportunity,” said Randell Wallace, the Lathrop & Gage partner who manages the Springfield office.

Jeff Childs of Sperry Van Ness/Rankin Co., who teamed with Tom Rankin to land the new space for Lathrop & Gage, said law firm partners approached the brokers about six months ago with an interest in Class A property that offered room to grow.

“This one seemed to fit their needs the best,” Childs said. “It gives them the ability to expand their operations in a more efficient space. The fact that it was downtown and in one of Springfield’s only Class A buildings was a real benefit.”

On National Avenue across from Mercy Hospital Springfield, the firm currently leases 24,000 square feet from Miller and Sanford Properties LLC, though Wallace said only 16,000 square feet is office space. The remainder is basement storage space, which has become somewhat obsolete for the law firm.

“There have been technological changes in 25 years that have impacted all business, and law firms as well. We no longer have need for libraries or for as much storage with so many things going on computers and hard drives,” Wallace said. “In the new facility, we will have substantially more conference room space and less library and storage space.

“We hope the new location will serve us as well for the next 25 years as the present one has for the last 25.”

Among the properties Wallace said the company considered was the adjacent Hammons Tower building, which has roughly 50,000 square feet of Class A space available, according to Plaza-Realty.com. He said the company was attracted to the ground-floor space at the BKD building. The accounting firm vacated 60,000 square feet at Hammons Tower in 2009 when it moved into its current home, constructed on the University Plaza Hotel parking lot.

Mark Harrell, a broker with Plaza Realty & Management Services LLC, which manages Hammons Tower, said four floors that BKD had occupied are still available for lease.

With Lathrop & Gage on board and BKD occupying three floors of Jared Enterprises’ downtown building, Jared said only 2,500 square feet remains available, listed for $23 per square foot.

Jared said within hours of Lathrop & Gage announcing its plans, he had received a call from a local service company he declined to name that was interested in learning more about the available first-floor spot.

“I think we could have a lot of people look at that location now,” Jared said.