New Law Offices for estate planning attorney James Hastings 

After a few restful years of regrouping … having sold his slightly damaged by the ‘Flood of 2003’ law offices in San Anselmo …. attorney James Hastings was ready to find a new, visible, headquarters for his expanding estate planning practice. The criteria were specific, the search took two years. Now success is at hand … Mr. Hastings will be moving to 1003 Third Street in San Rafael after a major remodeling effort is complete.

The search began with a range of possible locations … in the core of Marin County with buildings in Greenbrae, Larkspur and Kentfield. It was then expanded to San Rafael. The Multiple Listing Service (MLS) was of little use as MLS is designed for and primarily functions to serve buyers and sellers of single family homes.

For this project I re-entered the world of commercial real estate … I am primarily a residential real estate agent but have chaired the commercial and investment committees of the Marin Association of Realtors, have a broker’s license and a securities license as well.

One of the buildings we looked at in our two year search is 1850 Fourth Street in San Rafael, offered by Isobel Weiner of Sotheby’s. A beautiful building but a mite expensive for Mr Hastings’ needs.

About the time we let go of Fourth Street, up popped Third Street. The real estate negotiations with Theo Banks of Keegan & Coppin followed the normal commercial track … a letter of intent, verbal agreement, the redesigning of the space with the owner’s architect Peter Gallagher of Corte Madera and a bid by their contractor Loic Humbert. With this information in hand we began the negotiations and then, finally, wrote a lease that detailed payments, improvements and timing.

The location, location, location of the new building? … directly adjacent to the downtown San Rafael Kaiser Permente building. The Hastings Law high visibility location has its pluses and its minuses. The plus is the 44,000 people who drive past the building every day (according to the sign on Isobel’s listing or 30,879 people according to the sign on the San Rafael Corporate Center on 2nd Street) … the minus is that with that many people zipping and zapping past the property the energy is greatly impacted. To redirect the energy Finola Fitzclarence, a Berkeley classical feng shui practioner, trained by Joey Yap, was consulted. With some minor but important alterations, the building is going to be a real source of wealth building for Mr. Hastings and his clients. The most visible changes, aside from the full interior renovation, will be the color and the awning ….

 Marin County real estate comes in many forms and serves any number of functions … in this case a long term lease of a property that was underutilized (retail) becomes a stronger asset for the owners as it is developed to serve a higher and better usage as a law office.

Yes, I’m searching for a new office for another attorney and appreciate all leads …. Any ideas welcome! Contact me and let me know.

Posted by:  Tom Verkozen