Change of Venue

John Macliver's property management firm completed a complex leasing deal that has Adler Pollack & Sheehan moving into the Citizens Building.
John Macliver's property management firm completed a complex leasing deal that has Adler Pollack & Sheehan moving into the Citizens Building.

Adler Pollock & Sheehan’s move prompts downtown office shuffle

Law firm Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C. will
trade its longtime digs in the Fleet tower for another marquee downtown building,
One Citizens Plaza, in what has been called one of the city’s largest and most
intricate lease deals.



The 44-year-old firm has outgrown its space on the 22nd and 23rd floors of
the Fleet building at One Financial Plaza, after nearly doubling its headcount
over the past decade, from around 35 employees to 65.


The move to the Citizens building will give the firm 38,700 square feet of
space, about 50 percent more than its current office.


“We’re on top of each other here and we need room to grow,” said Mark Denehy,
Adler Pollock & Sheehan’s managing partner, who called the Citizens building
“the nicest office building in Providence.”


Adler Pollock & Sheehan’s new 10-year lease agreement at the Citizens
building was more than a year in the making. Building owner Citizens Financial
Group and manager MPM LLC shuffled more than a half dozen tenants via a tangle
of lease amendments and buyouts to make room for the law firm, which will move
into the seventh and eighth floors over Thanksgiving weekend.


“It was like a jigsaw puzzle, but we did it,” said MPM President John Macliver.
“I don’t know if there has been as complex a deal involving so many different
players in this city in quite some time, if not ever.”


Meanwhile, back at One Financial Plaza law firm Edwards & Angell, which
occupies more than six floors at the Fleet tower, has agreed to take over the
23rd floor being vacated by Adler Pollock & Sheehan. Edwards & Angell
will move into the space in January, said a spokesman from Gilbane Properties
Inc., the owner and manager of One Financial Plaza.


Wes Cotter, Gilbane’s director of communications, also said Gilbane is in
discussions with another company to lease the 22nd floor of the building.


Although One Citizens Plaza was 100 percent leased prior to the deal with
Adler Pollock & Sheehan, a number of tenants were looking to trim space,
Macliver said. The largest: pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which moved
out nearly two years ago but had been stuck with its lease ever since.


AstraZeneca agreed to buy out the remainder of its multiyear lease, freeing
up the entire fifth floor. But Adler Pollock & Sheehan needed two contiguous
floors, which required MPM and its tenants to get creative.


Macliver then negotiated a lease buyout for financial firm Wachovia Corp.,
which agreed to pay off its lease on a portion of the eleventh floor and move
to the Fleet building in a downsizing move. That freed up space for Citizens’
human resources department and MPM to relocate to the eleventh floor.


The next step of the tedious deal involved law firm Nixon Peabody LLP, which
had been looking to shed some space at its offices on the seventh floor. The
firm agreed to amend its lease to relocate to a newly refurbished fifth floor.


In the end, six tenants elected to amend their leases and relocate within
the building to clear out the seventh and eighth floors. UBS Financial Services,
municipal bond firm Roosevelt & Cross Inc. and Citizens’ public relations
department now fill the remaining space in the fifth floor.


“The effort by Citizens Financial Group and MPM to get a quality tenant like
Adler Pollock & Sheehan into this building was extraordinary,” Macliver
said.


He estimates the design and construction costs of reconfiguring the floors
will exceed $3.5 million, paid for by Citizens. A few of the floors were completely
gutted to make way for brand new offices and conference rooms, designed by architecture
firm Robinson Green Beretta Corp.


Macliver says Citizens gets the benefit of having long-term lease agreements
with a number of stable tenants for years to come.


“It’s a very good deal for Citizens to know they’ve got this building fully
leased for the next 10 years or so,” he said. The 13-story building, which is
classified as Class A office space, opened in 1990.


Adler Pollock & Sheehan, which specializes in litigation and corporate
law, practices more than 20 disciplines, including real estate, labor and employment,
health care, higher education and government relations. It was founded in 1960,
with its office in the old Rhode Island Hospital Trust building before moving
to the Fleet tower.


The firm, which represents several Fortune 500 companies, has grown not through
mergers but organically, Denehy noted. A Boston office that opened five years
ago has blossomed from 10 employees to 30 and will move into a larger space
next year.


 


Mike Colias is a contributing writer to PBN.

 



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