Expanding its presence in upstate New York, Albany-based Tully Rinckey has moved its Buffalo office to 5488 Sheridan Dr. from 70 Niagara St., where it was a tenant for the past 18 months.
The full-service law firm has a five-year lease for 5,090 square feet, on the first floor, at the newly constructed Sheridan Drive office building, owned by Zaepfel Property Development and Leasing. The firm previously leased less than 1,000 square feet.
“Our firm continues to find that the Western New York legal market is ripe for business growth and development,” founding partner Mathew Tully said in a statement. The former location was a good place to enter the legal market in Buffalo but could not accommodate the firm’s “aggressive growth plans,” he said.
The law firm was internally represented by managing partner Greg Rinckey in Albany.
Ronald George, Zaepfel’s chief financial officer, a non-attorney, handled the lease for the owner.
The asking range at 5488 Sheridan Dr. is $18 to $27 per square foot. Construction, including the law firm’s space, was completed on June 20th with a remaining section slated for completion in early August. The more than 19,000-square-foot property has class-A office space on three acres with amenities that include ample parking, restaurants, lodging, and fitness and recreational services.
“The firm wanted to be in a more central location that would allow us to serve a more expansive cross-section of clients as a regional Buffalo law firm,” Tully said. He said that moving to a new building with new office equipment and workstations appealed to the firm. The firm left the former location with six employees, including four attorneys, but within the next three years that number will increase to 23 employees, he said.
Tully, whose background includes working in the legal department of Morgan Stanley at One World Trade Center, service in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Department of Justice, opened Tully & Associates in 2004 that evolved to Tully Rinckey in 2008.
In 2012, Tully served as a lieutenant colonel in the New York Army National Guard in Afghanistan and was awarded the Combat Action Badge, the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
Rinckey, a former Army captain, was also an attorney with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps and assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The firm, which also has offices in Rochester, Syracuse, Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Va., is one of the largest full-service veteran-owned law firms in upstate New York. The firm has more than 50 attorneys, with the majority based in Albany. Its practice areas include family and matrimonial law, estate planning, employment law, military law, real estate law, commercial litigation, bankruptcy, personal injury, and criminal defense.
Located in Williamsville, N.Y., Zaepfel Development has developed, owned, managed, built or sold nearly five million square feet of office, warehouse, industrial and flex space in Western New York, Pennsylvania and the southeast.
CBRE’s Shana Stegner, director of office sales and leasing, and senior associate Sarah Cashimere-Warren handled the lease for the law firm.
