By Rachel Phillips
The Fitzgerald Morris Baker Law Firm is preparing to move their Glens Falls offices.
The firm currently rents space at 16 Pearl St., but is bound for downtown space at 68 Warren St.
Until recently, 68 Warren St. served as the headquarters for Genpak, a food packaging manufacturer. When Genpak announced its decision to move its headquarters to Charlotte, N.C., managing partner of the FitzGerald Morris Baker Law Firm, John Aspland Jr., saw it as an opportunity for his firm. They bought the building.
With a history dating back over 90 years, FitzGerald Morris Baker has been serving the community both in and around Upstate New York, and has seen great growth and success, according to the firm. Aspland said the acquisition of a new office will help facilitate positive growth. They bought the building.
“The idea is, when you make a step in one direction, and you have a plan in mind for five or 10 years down the road, you can see where you’re going. If you can find a space that allows you to develop a floor-space plan for growth, you can take steps to get where you want to be,” said Aspland.
The FitzGerald Morris Baker Firth Law Firm is a general practice group that deals in matters including, but not limited to, real estate, land use, trusts and estates, corporate work, public entity representation, health care, environment, litigation and trials and appeals.
The firm has 31 employees, and has offices in Glens Falls, Hudson Falls and Salem. They work with clients from Buffalo to Long Island. Aspland hopes the new office building will allow the firm to continue its century-long mission to serve the local community.
The new office building is a two-story 23,000-square-foot brick building with a rich local history, and it’s Aspland’s hope that some of that history can be retained.
In the 1970s, the building was the local Knights of Columbus Hall, where regular basketball tournaments, dances and other community events were hosted in the building’s large gymnasium. However, since the 1980s, the building has been used primarily as office space.
Aspland, who is currently working with several local contractors to renovate the space, was happy to discover that the original gymnasium flooring was still intact. He said he hopes to be able to reclaim it.
Aspland also wants to reclaim the building’s function as a community venue. He wants the elementary school-sized basketball court to be made available for local sports teams to rent out.
Aspland helps coach the local Foothill Rangers rugby team, which is made up of students from high schools across the region, and expressed excitement about the gym’s potential for both his team, and other local athletic groups.
Additionally, Aspland plans to make one of the building’s board rooms available for local groups to have meetings.
The FitzGerald Morris Baker Firth Law Firm is taking advantage of local talent for the renovations, including architect Ethan Hall, Hilltop Construction, engineer Shaun Rivers and interior designer Brendan Flanigan. Glens Falls National Bank did the financing.
“We wanted to work with people who were local to help us bring that building back to a place that we feel would continue to be a gem in the city and the surrounding community, and would allow us to continue to represent what we believe in, which is supporting the surrounding community and the city that we live and work in,” said Aspland.
The firm’s website is www.fmbf-law.com.