Perkins Coie Leaving Pacwest Early for Brewery Block 2

PORTLAND-The law firm Perkins Coie will relocate next summer from the middle of Pacwest Center to the top floors of a new 10-story building that is part of Gerding-Edlen Development’s five-block redevelopment of the former Blitz Weinhard Brewery.

The law firm signed a 12-year deal for 65,000 sf on the top four floors of Brewery Block 2. The firm expects to move in next summer, about 18 months before its decade-old lease is up for the 14th and 15th floors in Pacwest Center. That space is now being marketed for sublease.

“We’re the first major law firm to move out of the Downtown core, but we don’t think we’re too far away,” says Dick Cantlin, who as head of the law firm’s real estate group represented the firm in the lease transaction. “The stumbling block historically has been the perception that litigators didn’t want to be far from the courthouse, but our litigation group is quite comfortable with being over there.”