Change coming to Old Courthouse Square with sale of Empire Building

Change is coming to the historic, clock-capped Empire Building on Santa Rosa’s Old Courthouse Square.

The 106-year-old Renaissance Revival building is on the market for $3.6 million. And its primary tenant - one of Sonoma County’s oldest law firms - is moving out.

The two top floors of the white four-story edifice have long been occupied by the Geary, Shea, O’Donnell, Grattan & Mitchell firm. But early next year, the firm will open its doors at a contemporary office building at E Street and Sonoma Avenue, also home to the prominent law firm of Spaulding McCullough & Tansil.

Two Geary firm partners, John Geary and Patrick Grattan, own the Empire Building along with Greenbrae attorney Thom Taylor. Taylor said he is retiring and wanted to put the building up for sale.

“Our first reaction was kind of sad,” Grattan said of the pending move. But then the partners learned that space was available At?90 E St. and the firm could remain downtown.

“It just seemed like a perfect time to make the move,” Grattan said.

The Empire Building, its tower topped with gold and a clock facing in each of four directions, has long been an iconic structure for both the downtown and the city. It was featured on the cover of the 1982 historical book, Santa Rosa’s Architectural Heritage.

“That clock tower has been used as the symbol since the courthouse left downtown,” said Keven Brown, whose family has owned Corrick’s stationery and gift store for nearly a century.

More than a historical artifict, the Empire Building and its location comprise a valuable piece of downtown real estate, Brown said.

“If I didn’t own my building,” he said. “I would love to be there.”

The 20,600-square-foot building was constructed in 1908, said Paul Schwartz, the property’s listing agent with Terra Firma Global Partners. It originally housed the Santa Rosa bank, whose previous building had been destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

Ownership of the building has changed hands a number of times over the decades. Bank of America moved out when leading Sonoma County financier and philanthropist Henry Trione bought it in 1956. Five years later, Trione co-founded within its walls the Empire College business school.

Fifty years have passed since the Geary firm moved into the Empire Building. The late Bill Geary, son of the late Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Donald Geary, settled the practice there in 1964.

The second floor has a mix of tenants, including attorneys, Schwartz said. The bottom floor now houses the Sonoma County Bar Association, he said, but in the long term, “that space is ideally suited for retail or restaurant use.”

The building’s listing comes as the former AT&T building on Third Street is undergoing a major retrofit to become a glass-clad office building and wine museum, a project known as the Museum on the Square.

As well, city officials recently approved a planned reunification of the square, now cut in two by the joining of Santa Rosa and Mendocino avenues.

The Empire Building, said Schwartz, is “such a unique product in the absolute greatest location downtown.”

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit