Fisher Phillips Back for Downtown Renaissance
By Crain's Cleveland Business reporter Stan Bullard
Taking much of the 40th floor of 200 Public Square, the national law firm Fisher Phillips plans to move its Northeast Ohio office to downtown Cleveland from a Broadview Heights suburban office park.
Steve Nobil, Fisher Phillips regional managing partner, said the firm wants to be part of the city's downtown renaissance. It's an outlook the opposite of when the predecessor Millisor & Nobil firm moved 20 years ago to a new building at South Hills Office Park. At the time, the firm needed room in both its then-downtown Cleveland and Akron offices, and it consolidated both in a single Broadview Heights office, centrally located on I-77.
"Downtown Cleveland when we left is a whole lot different that it is today," Nobil said. "We want to be in downtown today because it's a pretty exciting renaissance, and we think it will help us grow."
The employment law firm hopes the skyline views of the new suite will help attract lateral attorneys and new recruits. The firm has agreed to take space from 200 Public Square owner Harbor Group of Norfolk, Va., that will allow it to accommodate at least five more attorneys.
Fisher Phillips is scheduled to occupy its suite, which is currently being renovated, by Nov. 20. The firm will move 25 attorneys and 18 support staffers to the central city. It will occupy 17,000 square feet at the building formerly known as BP Tower, which is 13% larger than its current 15,000 square feet of space.
"We've grown since our (2011) merger with Fisher Phillips," Nobil said, noting that the office has added five attorneys since then. The practice has reaped benefits, Nobil said, from the national firm's ability to add on-the-ground representation from its network of 32 offices across the continental United States.
However, Nobil said the new office will benefit the firm as much from an improved layout and efficiency as the additional room. The firm's move coincides with the end of its lease at South Hills, and it's negotiating to receive "some significant" incentives from the city of Cleveland. He declined to enumerate the aid because it is still under negotiation. The firm also will use its space more efficiently thanks to a "less-paper initiative," which means it no longer will take space to store closed-case materials, instead keeping them on secure computer servers.
Fisher Phillips looked at multiple buildings downtown before landing atop 200 Public Square. Nobil said it opted for the one-time oil company headquarters because of the amenities the building offers, from a fitness center to dining options and parking under its own roof.
Russell Rogers, a Colliers International senior vice president, said Fisher Phillips will occupy about three-quarters of 200 Public Square's 40th floor. Its tenancy will take the 1 million-square-foot building to almost 90% occupancy.
A major portion of the remaining vacancy is on two full floors that Colliers, which represents the skyscraper, has available to lease, Rogers said. That does not count the top floor, which houses the former corporate dining room and executive suite of the building's original owner and developer. Fisher Phillips is a natural addition to multiple top-tier law firms in the high-rise, Rogers said.
Fisher Phillips was represented by the Newmark Knight Frank brokerage through both its Atlanta, where Fisher Phillips leadership is based, and Cleveland offices.
Bob Nosal, managing director of Newmark's Cleveland office, said Fisher Phillips searched multiple downtown buildings before finding the terms and setting it would accept at 200 Public Square.
Although there is no new multitenant office development of scale in the southern suburbs, Nosal said there still are more than a half-dozen top-tier buildings that could have accommodated the law firm.
Nobil said few non-lawyers appreciate the breadth and complexity of employment law. Matters in such a practice range from labor relations and workplace safety to wage and hour law and temporary staffing."