Farris Law expects to open Monday at its newly built office on Brunswick Avenue after spending more than 40 years in downtown Gardiner.
The law firm is moving Friday out of its two downtown offices at 218 and 251 Water St., according to Gregory Farris, owner and a senior partner at the law firm.
Farris said he wanted to move all 12 employees to a single location, and the current offices on Water Street couldn’t be configured to accommodate that. The new building on U.S. Route 201 with 5,000 square feet of space on its main floor has more parking and conference room space, he said.
“To have all the attorneys and staff under one roof, it’s a much more seamless environment for our clients when we know what is going on,” Farris said.
Farris originally planned to build an office business park on the 27-acre parcel on Brunswick Avenue he owns with Steve McGee, but he scaled back those plans after he and the city couldn’t agree on the level of tax incentives the city would offer.
Last year Farris proposed the city establish a tax-increment financing district to allow him to recoup infrastructure costs needed to establish the business park and give back 100 percent of new tax revenue from new development for the first five years and 50 percent for the next 15 years. City staff recommended giving back 33 percent for 10 years.
Farris said the new building has extra space for other businesses, but most of it will be for the law firm. An additional building would have to be built to pursue his plans of attracting new businesses looking for office space, he said.
The two employees at the Freeport office on U.S. Route 1 will have space in the new building. He’ll evaluate whether to close that office, which is leased, after a year, Farris said.
The law firm rents the Water Street spaces. Farris sold both buildings to Aspire Corporation from Augusta in 2008 for $800,000 total, according to city assessing records. He first opened at the 251 Water St. office in 1973.
“I needed to get off the street, but I didn’t want to abandon the town, for sure,” Farris said.
Paul Koenig — 621-5663
Twitter: @paul_koenig
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