Law Firm Buchalter Signs Office Lease in San Francisco
The firm will move its 70-attorney operation to 425 Market Street in San Francisco by the end of March.
Law firm Buchalter San Francisco has signed a new office lease at 425 Market Street in San Francisco, a LEED Platinum certified property. The firm will occupy the full 29th floor of the building, and plans to move into the space in late March. The office will house the firm’s 70 attorneys and support staff.
Buchalter has been in the San Francisco market for 40 years, and it has experienced recent growth, catalyzing the decision to move to a new office space. San Francisco office managing shareholder Matthew Covington is overseeing the move. “We are ready for a change, and our new office has everything, from the central and accessible location to the efficient layout and modern amenities,” he said in a statement about the lease.
While the office market in San Francisco was destabilized by the pandemic, law firms have actually performed well through the market dislocation. Unlike tech companies, financial services companies and energy companies—which drove the glut of sublease space in major cities—law firms only contributed 5% to 7% of office space the sublease market, according to research from Savills. Law firms based in San Francisco contributed the least office space to the market during the COVID outbreak, with about 1% of office space in the sublease market coming from them. Chicago, New York and Los Angeles law firms contributed only 5% and 6%, respectively, to the market through the end of last year.
Even with help of law firms, the San Francisco office market has continued to face challenges, even through the end of last year. The fourth quarter report from Marcus & Millichap predicted that office rents will fall 9% to $54.90 per square foot. This exceeds the 8.5% mean rate of rent decline last year. While the metrics don’t look great, the report was optimistic that a full recovery would come to the market. The 9% dip in office rents stems from an onslaught of new office deliveries. This year, the office inventory has grown by 3.3% with 5.7 million square feet of new stocked completed. While construction is slowing, there is still a pretty substantial pipeline product underway.
In the lease transaction, Strategic Advisor Steve Walbridge, Mike Catalano, and executive director Margaret Duskin of Cushman and Wakefield represented Buchalter.