Two Boca Raton law firms had to abandon their offices for several months after a water pipe burst at the Boca Corporate Center.
Miller & O’Neill, a five-attorney probate and estate law firm, and McClosky, D’Anna & Dieterle, a four-attorney litigation boutique, temporarily moved their offices with help from Quest Work Spaces, a company that provides temporary turnkey space to companies in emergencies.
The pipe burst at the four story building June 28. Ron D’Anna, managing partner of McClosky, D’Anna & Dieterle, said he received a call from the landlord at 7PM notifying him of the problem and rushed to his fourth floor office to find 1½ inches of water covering parts of the floor. Hundreds of thousands of documents were ruined, he said.
The East Tower at 2300 Glades Road on the office campus owned by the Blackstone Group was not closed.
At first, the two law firms tried to work around the landlord’s cleanup and remediation work, but it soon became clear that wasn’t feasible, D’Anna said. He heard about Quest’s ability to find short term space for the Hogan Lovells law firm when it’s downtown Miami office was flooded in January.
The firms were back to business within 48 hours. Coldwell Banker brokered a temporary lease of 9,000 square feet of replacement space at the 1200 Building in Boca Raton.
Quest accommodated both firms with dozens of furnished office suits and seamlessly transferred phone lines. As a result, “clients don’t even know we moved when they called,” D’Anna said.
Unlike the Hogan Lovells drenching, which ended with the firm terminating its lease and facing a lawsuit over its departure, D’Anna said he hopes to return in late September. His firm had just moved into the Boca corporate Center and built out its space.
We hired a public adjuster to assist us in the adjustment of our claim, and we hired an air quality company to do testing,” D’Anna said. “We have a landlord who is very kind to us, and the building is perfect for us. We hope to be back by the end of September.”
Larry Miller of Miller & O’Neill did not return calls for comment.
