Clouds darken the sky over the Rivermark Centre late Saturday evening on July 6, 2024 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save After more than 30 years in the One American Place office building downtown, McGlinchey Stafford said it has signed a lease to move its Baton Rouge operations into II Rivermark Centre in June. The firm will take up 16,000 square feet, or the entire 15th floor in the building at 450 Laurel St.
Zelma Murray Frederick, managing member of McGlinchey's Baton Rouge office, said in an email the firm considered a variety of spaces downtown and around the city before making its decision. "We decided to stay downtown and were excited about the amenities II Rivermark Centre provided," she said. "It checked all the boxes for us.
" McGlinchey had been in One American Place since 1993, when the New Orleans firm merged with Rubin, Curry, Colvin, and Joseph to open a Baton Rouge office. The Baton Rouge office is the firm's second largest, with 44 employees, including 22 attorneys. Frederick said the move will allow the firm to consolidate its space onto one floor.
This will make it easier for attorneys and staff to collaborate. "In recent years, any time we’ve moved or open a new office, we’ve re-imagined what our office needs are, for the modern post-COVID era and looking to the future," she said. The addition of McGlinchey is another feather for II Rivermark Centre, which had been the Chase North Tower before an extensive renovation.
That renovation included converting part of the adjoining I Rivermark Centre into luxury high-rise apartments. Taylor Porter Brooks & Phillips, Baker Donelson, Adams and Reese, Donohue Patrick & Scott, Liskow & Lewis, Irwin Fritchie Urquhart Moore & Daniels and Sternberg, Naccari & White all have offices in the building. Mike Wampold, owner-developer of Rivermark Centre, said in a text message it was rewarding to see McGlinchey choose to move into a locally owned and managed office building.
"We spent a lot of time, effort and capital into creating an extraordinary environment in which people can live, work and play," he said. The move is also a blow to One American Place, the second-tallest office building in downtown. The property has been seized by the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office, after a lawsuit claimed the owners defaulted on the mortgage.
A sheriff's sale for the property is set for Oct. 2. Another Baton Rouge law firm, Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson, sued the owners of One American Place in May, charging that they had failed to repair the roof.
Breazeale Sachse has some offices on the top floor of the building. According to the suit, a 2016 lease agreement said the owners would replace the roof no later than the end of 2023. The suit claims that by not replacing the roof, the owners have defaulted on the lease agreement they have with the law firm.
Frederick said while the uncertainty surrounding One American Place was a factor, it didn't drive the firm's decision to move. "We’ve been happy with our tenure in One American Place since 1993," she said..
