Ater Wynne has been headquartered in the KOIN Center tower at222 SW Columbia St. since 1985, occupying the top three floors ofoffice space in the 35-story building, which is topped with 16floors of residential condominiums. Covering a full block boundedby Northwest 13th and 14th avenues and Lovejoy and Marshallstreets, the Lovejoy is a 120,000-sf office and retail buildingdesigned to achieve LEED Silver certification from the US GreenBuilding Council. Ater Wynn expects to make its move inDecember.

In making the move, Ater Wynne is decreasing its headquartersleasehold by about one-third. Company principal Jonathan Ater tellsGlobeSt.com that a significant portion of the shrinkage is a resultof the efficiency offered by the larger floor plate and open floorplan of the Lovejoy space. Another piece of it is a result of theflexibility it negotiated into its Lovejoy lease, which gives thelaw firm the right to expand onto a portion of the 8th floor andthe right of first refusal on additional space in the building.

"We are in very traditional office space with a lot of privatespaces that aren't the way people work anymore," Ater says. "Withthe Lovejoy's larger, more open floor plates, we can lay out a verydifferent, very creative, much more efficient kind of workplace.It's not going to look like your Downtown law firm."