Cellino Law will move Rochester office to State Street

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While the trend has been for law firms to uproot from downtown in favor of office space in the suburbs, Cellino Law has opted to establish a more significant presence in Rochester’s central business district.

The Buffalo-based personal injury legal firm recently purchased a building on State Street and plans to refurbish the space for its Rochester headquarters.

“We’ve been in Rochester a long time and in buying the building we’re obviously making a commitment to the city,” said Ross Cellino, founding partner of Cellino Law.

The firm, through 73 State Street, LLC, recently paid $725,000 to Novamac LLC for the former home of Wilmac Technologies. The move is expected to take place this spring.

The building is adjacent to the Kenneth B. Keating Federal Building at the corner of State Street and Church Street.

“We’ve been looking at it for a while and decided to pull the trigger,” Cellino said. “They’ve redeveloped State Street so there’s convenient parking for our clients.”

The firm currently occupies space on the sixth floor of the Powers Building at 16 West Main St., barely a block away.

“We’re in a beautiful building and frankly it’s tough to leave,” Cellino said. “We like the building we’re in but to have our own freestanding building just makes sense. For our firm, it allows for more expansion.”

The building has 10,000 square feet across four floors, with an employee kitchen. Cellino Law plans to create a workout space for employees as well. Cellino said the building is in very good condition, preparing it for the firm won’t be a heavy lift.

“There’s a lot of things you can do when you own your own building,” Cellino said.

Wilmac Technologies has relocated to the Five Star Bank Building at 100 Chestnut St. The company occupies temporary space on the 18th floor as Benderson Development Co. LLC completes the buildout of Wilmac’s permanent space.

Steve McDonnell Jr., president and owner of Wilmac Technologies, said his rapidly growing firm needed a fresh, open space to call home, but the company did not need its own building.

“I bought the company, not the building,” McDonnell said of his buyout of his father as Wilmac owner about a year ago. “I don’t want to be in real estate.”

Since 2021, three prominent law firms have departed from downtown to new offices in Brighton.

McConville Considine Cooman & Morin PC spent more than 40 years in the heart of Rochester before moving from the Talman Building on East Main Street to Meridian Centre in the fall of 2021.

Two years later, Trevett Cristo PC, a fixture of downtown for 90 years, relocated from the Crossroads Building to Canal View Office Park, while Clark Peshkin moved from the Times Square Building to Linden Oaks.

Cellino Law, however, has decided to stay in the city.

“A lot of businesses have left downtown but for us downtown works well,” Cellino said. “We go to court frequently so rather than worry about getting caught in traffic, it’s convenient to be able to walk to court.

“It seems like downtown is growing back to where it should be. We’re happy to be a fixture downtown.”

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