Universal represents Memphis Area Legal Services in Falls Building Lease

MALS leases top floor of Falls Building in Downtown Memphis

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Memphis Area Legal Services Inc. has leased the long-vacant top floor of the 11-story Falls Building in Downtown Memphis.

MALS will move to the 13,473-square-foot 11th floor of the historic building at 22 N. Front St. – a space law firm Martin Tate Morrow &  Marston left in 2004 – beginning July 1.

The 45-employee firm, which provides various legal assistance for people at or below the poverty line, will relocate from a 15,224-square-foot space on two floors

of the Claridge House at 109 N. Main in Downtown.

MALS' lease for the space, not all usable, expires at the end of July. SunTrust Bankforeclosed on the property, which it now owns and manages, a number of years ago.

The 150,853-square-foot Falls Building's owner, Hertz Investment Group LLC, is about to pull permits for a renovation to meet its new tenant's needs, said MALS executive director and CEO Harrison McIver III. Those needs include a redesigned entrance, a separate entrance for its fair housing group and adjustments to the sizes of some of the offices.

The construction should take about 10 weeks, McIver said.

MALS signed a 16-year lease with Santa Monica, Calif.-based Hertz, which bought the building – then nearly 70 percent occupied – in 2012 as part of a  larger, $147.5 million portfolio acquisition.

MALS began looking for space at about the same time Pinnacle Airlines Corp. left Downtown in 2013. 

"This is condo space," he said of the Claridge House. "So we either had to purchase space or look elsewhere."

But leaving Downtown was never an option, although many law firms have, now that legal documents can be filed online instead of at the courthouse, McIver said. After looking at a number of locations, including One Commerce Square and One Memphis Place, MALS chose the Falls Building, which he said was "just a good fit for us at this point."

He declined to disclose term details, but did say "they gave us a very good deal."

"It was a pretty intense negotiation," he said. "We didn't get everything we wanted, but we got a lot."

Gray Fiser and Alex Stringfellow, both of CBRE Memphis' Downtown office, represented the landlord. Darrell Cobbins, president and principal broker of Universal Commercial Real Estate, represented the tenant.

Ryan Poe covers commercial real estate; transportation and logistics; construction; and Downtown Memphis. Contact him at rpoe@bizjournals.com.