The law firm Karnopp Petersen LLP, after nearly 25 years at 1201 NW Wall St., is moving to new offices near the Old Mill District.

The law firm will take the place at 360 SW Bond St., also known as the Moda Building, now occupied by the Bend branch of the law firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt. The swap should be complete by April, said Andie Edmonds, a broker with NAI ARIS, a commercial real estate firm in Bend.

Edmonds represented Karnopp Petersen in a transaction that required months of analysis and negotiation on her part, and earned her the 2014 Transaction of the Year award from CCIM of Oregon and Southwest Washington. CCIM — Certified Commercial Investment Member — designates a commercial real estate broker who’s completed 200 hours of professional training at the CCIM Institute.

“Leases don’t get this complicated and involved, and it is a little unique from that standpoint,” Edmonds said. “As a firm, we sort of seek out opportunities that may require some additional analysis. It may require working a little more creatively for our clients. That’s part of our culture at NAI ARIS.”

The attorneys at Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, headquartered in Portland, will move from 11,000 square feet on the fourth floor to a smaller space on the fifth floor, Edmonds said. The firm’s website lists six attorneys in Bend.

Karnopp Peterson will vacate the Wall Street address that it’s occupied since 1990 for the fourth floor of the Moda Building. The firm occupies 16,000 square feet on two floors on Wall Street, just a short walk from the Deschutes County Courthouse on Bond Street.

Filing documents electronically, however, means an office close to the courthouse is not much of an advantage, Ellen Grover, a partner at Karnopp Petersen who led the firm’s occupancy review, wrote in an email Tuesday.

“We needed a location that would operate much more efficiently on a number of levels,” she wrote.

Having all the firm’s lawyers — its online roster lists 18 active — and support staff on one floor, although 5,000 square-feet smaller, helps “maintain a team effort,” Grover wrote. The 6-year-old Moda Building is LEED certified, meaning energy conservation measures are incorporated into its design. It accommodates updated office technology and has space for client meeting areas, including the rooftop garden, she wrote.

“It’s a beautiful building, for starters,” she said.

Edmonds said Karnopp Petersen approached her in April 2013 about finding a new home before its lease expired in two years. She analyzed several options, ranging from staying put to building something. Lease rates helped steer the decision, but finding an appropriate building proved difficult, she said.

Meanwhile, the clock ticked away on the opportunity to build in time for a move. Eventually, Edmonds, as leasing agent for the Moda Building, assembled a deal that satisfied Moda Health and Western Title & Escrow, both tenants with ownership shares in the building, and the two law firms. A third law firm, Jordan Ramis PC, also leased space on the fifth floor, Edmonds said.

“She really analyzed it from four different strategies or four different perspectives,” said Renè Nelson, regional vice president for CCIM and a member of the committee that selected Edmonds for the award. “We could tell she went above and beyond a normal transaction.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com