CITY OFFICE BUILDING GETTING FACELIST, LAW FIRM PLANS CHILD CARE CENTER FOR HOYER BUILDING

By George Hohmann, Charleston Daily Mail, April 28, 2004 – Page 3C

The law firm of Pullin Fowler & Flanagan PLLC has purchased the Hoyer Building on Quarrier Street and plans to remodel it for law offices that will include a day care center for employees’ children.

“In our business, recruiting people is a difficult task – you can go to Pittsburgh or Charlotte and make 40 percent more.  So we want to provide services you can’t go out and buy,” said Victor Flanagan, the law firm’s managing partner.

“One of the biggest problems our employees have is child care.  It probably accounts for 50 percent of the stress here.”

Thomas Tinder, executive director of the West Virginia State Bar, said he does not know of any other law office in the state with on-site day care.

Flanagan said the law firm’s 65 Charleston attorneys and staff have 25 to 30 children who could use either the day care center or an after-school computer room, which also is part of the remodeling plan.

The law firm picked the Hoyer Building because “we wanted something in town, convenient for our employees, that gave us a lot of options that would allow us to make our offices employee friendly,” Flanagan said.

LAW FIRM PLANS RESTORATION FOR NEW OFFICES DOWNTOWN

By Jim Balow, The Charleston Gazette, April 28, 2004 – Page 1C

The Quarrier Street office structure that until this week was known as the Hoyer Building has been sold and is being renovated as the new home for the law firm of Pullin, Fowler, Flanagan, Brown & Poe, PLLC, PLLC.

The law firm bought the building Friday for lawyer Ralph Hoyer for $745,000.00 and plans to send another $2 million or more to fit it up, said member Vic Flanagan.  He gave some visitors a tour of the four-story building Tuesday.

“Our plan is to restore the front and the Hale Street side to the original late 1800s early 1900s look.  All the plastic and plaster is coming off.”

The lawyers hired architects Kreps & Kreps to design the restoration and new floor plan and Jarrett Construction to do the work.  They hope to move in early next year.

In a first-floor store space once occupied by Holley’s Custom Apparel, Flanagan pointed to an exposed interior brick wall with brick arches.  “Isn’t it neat?  I fell in love with it.  This will be our formal conference room.  We’re going to use as much interior brick as possible.”

The first floor will also contain a main reception lobby, two smaller conference rooms, a mock courtroom for practice trails and a daycare center for the children of employees.

The lawyers also are buying property in back, which includes an empty low rise building.  The building will be torn down to make room for parking and a playground for the daycare center.

“We did a count – most of us have kids,” Flanagan said.  “Probably 80 percent to 90 percent of our attorneys have children.”  The daycare center is one way the firm can compete with better-paying large firms to recruit and retain lawyers, he said.

Other amenities planned for the building include a workout area and showers in the basement and a rooftop patio.

The firm will try to keep as much of the original texture of the building as possible, he said – the large windows that let in natural light, old wooden doors, patterned tin ceilings and Carerra tile floors.

The 10 year old firm has been leasing space in the Bank One Center.  Ever-increasing rent, along with the low cost of borrowing money, help convince the lawyers to but their own building.

But the decision goes beyond dollars and cents, said member Edgar Poe .  “It’s a sense of pride for the law firm.  This is a downtown building.  Some people move outside the city.  We made a commitment to Charleston.

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