Chicago law firm at Salt Lake tower

A Chicago-based law firm with offices in Salt Lake City has signed a lease agreement for space in what will be the city's third-tallest office tower.

Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione announced Tuesday that it would lease 7,500 square feet in the soon-to-be built 222 building in downtown Salt Lake City.

John Dahlstrom, executive vice president and general counsel of Logan-based Wasatch Property Management, a co-developer of the 222 building, said the law firm is the first tenant to be publicly announced for the 21-story building planned for 222 S. Main.

Roughly 25 percent of the 440,000-square-foot building is pre-leased, Dahlstrom said, and half of the building is expected to be pre-leased in the coming months.

Steven Shurtz, managing partner of Brinks' Salt Lake office, said downtown is the best fit for the firm, which concentrates solely on intellectual property issues.

The firm opened its Utah office last July and is currently located in the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Salt Lake City. But the lease with Wells Fargo is only temporary. In June, the firm will move to the Ken Garff building at 405 S. Main, where it will be located until the completion of the 222 building.

The law firm currently employs four attorneys but plans to hire several more in the coming years.

Premium office space in downtown Salt Lake City is nearly nonexistent, as the vacancy rate for class A properties in the central business district fell to 0.70 percent in the first quarter, down from a 1.35 percent average in 2006, according to a Commerce CRG report.

"We need to have class A space downtown right now in order to continue the great economic growth that's been occurring in this market," Dahlstrom said. "It is going to be a beautiful modern design. It will be the first real new class A space developed in Salt Lake in a long time."

The 222 building was first unveiled in 2004 by Hamilton Partners, a Chicago-based commercial real estate development and management company.

In 2006, Hamilton announced it was partnering with Wasatch Property Management in building the new tower. Several start dates for building the tower have come and gone, but Dahlstrom said Tuesday that the building is now set to start construction in July. It will be completed in June 2009.

---

E-mail: danderton@desnews.com