Accounting firm to move downtown

Springfield business to locate in Bushnell Building.

Public accounting firm Clark Schaefer Hackett is expanding in Springfield and will move this fall to bigger office space downtown.

The firm, with 55 employees here, has signed a lease for 17,000 square feet in the historic Bushnell Building at 14 E. Main St., said John McKinnon, shareholder-in-charge of the Springfield office for Clark Schaefer Hackett.

The lease is for five years, with an option for five more years after that, McKinnon said.

Currently, the company leases about 14,500 square feet at 2525 N. Limestone St. The firm’s offices have been located on North Limestone Street since 1995, McKinnon said.

Renovations are ongoing at the new downtown space, a total $500,000 investment, he said. Plans are for the firm to move to the new offices in mid-September or October.

“We believe in downtown renovation and want to be part of that,” said McKinnon, who is also a member of the board of directors of Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce.

Meanwhile, the lease has expired on the space in the firm’s current building, he said.

With the move downtown, “We’re looking to renovate our space and get an open and inviting space,” he said. “We’re always trying to attract the best of the best to our staff.”

Clark Schaefer Hackett's new lease in the Bushnell Building, a renovated 1800s-era office building, raises the occupancy "considerably," said Jim Lagos, president of Bushnell Investment Co. Inc., the property owner.

“The fact that they chose downtown Springfield is a testament to their civic mindedness,” Lagos said.

Other tenants include Bushnell Banquet Center on the lower level, and insurance claims company CodeBlue on the fourth and third floors.

Lagos said CodeBlue currently occupies the entire fourth floor and part of the third, and is growing into the rest of the five-story building's third floor. The Bushnell Building consists of five stories plus a basement.

Considering CodeBlue and the new lease with Clark Schaefer Hackett, that leaves about 10,000 square feet of empty space for rent of the building’s total 150,000 square feet, Lagos said.

Clark Schaefer Hackett has offices in Springfield, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Miami Twp. and Toledo with about 370 total employees firmwide. The firm merged its Dayton and Middletown offices into one in Miami Twp. in 2012.

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