The Nashville Bar Association has a capital campaign under way to raise $475,000 to offset moving and furnishing expenses for its new quarters in One Nashville Place, also referred to as the R2D2 Building and the U.S. Bank Building.

The move to the new offices at 150 Fourth Ave. N. is scheduled for May 1. The association will occupy 7,620 square feet of space of the approximately 17,000 square feet of space on the 10th floor of the building.

Currently, Nashville Bar has about 6,200 square feet of space in the Hotel Indigo on Union Avenue. The only other non-hotel tenant in Hotel Indigo is law firm King and Ballow, which has no plans to move, says Doug Pierce, a partner at the firm.

“We moved here in 2000, so when we move, we’ll have been here 11 years,” says Gigi Woodruff, executive director of the Nashville Bar Association.

Prior to the 2000 move, the bar association was on Fourth Avenue, and before that, it was in The Stahlman Building. The Nashville Bar Association will celebrate its 180th anniversary on April 23. It has nine full-time employees and one part-time employee. The mission of the association, which has more than 2,900 members, is to improve the practice of law through providing education, service, and fellowship to its members.

The association’s new location will offer a large Continuing Legal Education (CLE) training room, a suitable room for the vast majority of its CLE classes for lawyers.

“Right now our current space doesn’t have a meeting area for our seminars that is big enough to house the majority,” says Woodruff, “so we go and rent out some rooms in different locations. What we’re looking forward to is being able to provide in-house CLE, which is a lot more convenient for our members, since they don’t have to remember a different place where they have to go. Of course, large ones when we’re having 100 people or 150 people, we still have to rent out space.”

Some space in the new offices will be designated as a place for members to kill an hour or two downtown prior to meetings or court. There will be a small “office away from the office” with a computer station, a printer, and Internet access. Also available will be a board room that members can use for a deposition, mediation, or meeting. The room will be suitable as committee meeting space for the Nashville Bar Association’s 33 committees.

The bar association’s new offices were leased through CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), with Bill Neill serving as the broker. The space is under a 10-year lease with an additional five-year option. According to CBRE’s brochure for One Nashville Place, the lease rate for the 25-story building is $22.25 per rental square foot. The association’s current landlord is Lineberry Properties. Lineberry does not have a tenant yet to fill the space the bar association is vacating.

“I don’t know what we’ll do with this space,” says a representative of Lineberry Properties who wants to remain anonymous. “It’s way too far ahead.”

Several months ago, a silent phase kicked off the Nashville Bar Association’s capital campaign to finance its move. The hope is that the second phase of the campaign, the public phase, will help the association reach its goal of $475,000 to pay for the move, as well as furnishings and technology for the new offices. By early January, the bar association had raised a little over 50 percent of its goal.

“It’s thrilling to see all the law firms and people that are really supportive of their bar association,” says Woodruff. “It’s gratifying to have all that participation from the groups and individuals.”

Once the move is complete, the bar association will invite its members to an open house and to visit its new home.5