Baton Rouge attorney Gordon McKernan is expanding his law offices, having purchased a building on Constitution Avenue for $515,000.
McKernan also is planning to open a new office in Lake Charles, roughly 18 months after he began advertising there. That deal is expected to close Friday, he says.
In Baton Rouge, Get Gordon Baton Rouge LLC bought the Constitution Avenue building from Adair Holdings, a limited liability company domiciled in Douglas County, Nebraska, according to sales documents.
The building, just off College Drive, near Tio Javi’s Fresh Mex Bar & Grill, is visible from Interstate 10 and located diagonally from McKernan’s main law office—identifiable by the large capital “G” seen from the interstate—on Hilton Avenue near Citiplace.
The purchase has both short- and long-term benefits, says McKernan, who operates Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys and has about 175 employees statewide. He intends to relocate a large part of his intake department—comprised of employees who answer phone calls—and some administrative staff to the Constitution Avenue building. They’re currently being housed in a leased space inside the Corporate Atrium on Hilton Avenue.
“We’ve outgrown our main building,” McKernan says, adding that the additional office space is less than a mile away from his main office. Minor renovation work like painting, updating windows and landscaping began Tuesday. The changes aim to give the building the same feel as McKernan’s more modern Hilton Avenue office. He’s aiming to relocate his staff by May 1.
As for the long term, McKernan says the Constitution Avenue building has marketing potential, given drivers traveling along I-10 have an unrestricted view of the location—something McKernan says can be hard to find in Baton Rouge but not in cities like Houston, where commercial and retail properties are highly visible from the interstate. McKernan’s thinking of putting up a large electronic billboard or flags with coordinated messages.
“That part of the interstate is known as the gold corridor in terms of marketing,” he says. Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development routine traffic count data shows roughly 178,00 cars—or 1.2 million per week—travel that stretch of roadway each day.
“All those eyeballs get to see the commercial enterprises going up right there,” he says. “It’s a marketing advantage.”
Caroline Couvillion of NAI/Latter & Blum represented McKernan in both the Baton Rouge and Lake Charles transactions.
