New offices take up entire eighth floor of Plaza Five Points building
Sarasota’s largest law firm, Williams Parker, has relocated its headquarters to Plaza Five Points, located at 50 Central Ave. in downtown Sarasota, the firm has announced.
The move was only the fourth since the firm was founded almost a century ago, in 1925, a news release notes. “The new 35,000-square-foot headquarters occupies the entire eighth floor of the centrally located and iconic Plaza Five Points building,” the release adds.
“We miss our brick building at 200 South Orange,” Williams Parker President Mike Wilson said in the release. “While it was a terrific home for five decades,” he continued, “we needed new space to support our growth strategy and enhance our ability to serve our clients and the community. … The new office reinforces our brand and culture and incorporates cutting-edge technology, sustainability, energy efficiency, and flexibility. The move has the added benefit of taking the firm back to its origins and historical roots,” Wilson pointed out.
Five Points — the intersection of Main Street and Pineapple and Central avenues — has been the center of downtown Sarasota since the city was established, the release notes. In relocating to Plaza Five Points, the release says, Williams Parker returned to the site of the firm’s original headquarters, the First Bank and Trust Building (later known as the Palmer Bank Building), which opened 100 years ago. Williams Parker was a charter tenant that remained in the building for 37 years.
In 2023, the release adds, the firm opened a second office location at the master-planned community and mixed-use development Waterside Place in Lakewood Ranch.
Williams Parker, which has more than 45 lawyers, has one of the state’s largest trusts and estates legal teams, the release points out, as well as “accomplished real estate, tax, labor and employment, corporate, healthcare, intellectual property, and litigation and dispute resolution practices.”