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A 106-year-old building in Old Town Chinatown is preparing to embark on a new chapter of development.

A group of聽 shareholders announced earlier this week that it has purchased the Fleischner-Mayer Building from the聽 for $6 million. The firm plans to renovate the building, at 115 N.W. First Ave., and then move its offices 鈥� presently in the U.S. Bancorp Tower 鈥� into the top two floors.

Albert Menashe, a founding shareholder of the firm, said the idea came about as Gevurtz Menashe neared the end of its lease at the U.S. Bancorp Tower 鈥� the company’s home for the past 13 years.

鈥淲e thought rather than lease (the Fleischner-Mayer Building), (buying) it would give our firm a place that we could be for a long time and be in control, to a greater degree, of our own destiny,鈥� Menashe said.

Gevurtz Menashe, which was founded in 1982, is the largest firm west of Chicago that specializes in family law, according to Menashe. The company has 22 lawyers and 22 staffers.

Bill Barendrick Jr., CEO of the Bill Naito Co., said the Fleischner-Mayer Building was not for sale when Gevurtz Menashe expressed interest in purchasing it. However, the Bill Naito Co. ultimately was satisfied with the deal, Barendrick said.

Nathan Sasaki of and Peter Andrews and Nick Ehlen of represented Gevurtz Menashe in the transaction. Melvin Mark will continue serving as the building’s manager, while both Melvin Mark and Apex will provide tenant marketing services, according to a statement from Gevurtz Menashe.

The 38,000-square-foot Fleischner-Mayer Building was designed by prominent Portland architect Edgar Lazarus 鈥� perhaps best known for designing the Vista House, in the Columbia River Gorge, in 1915. The Old Town Chinatown structure was conceived as an office and warehouse space for waterfront commerce that took place only blocks away, according to the Bill Naito Co. website. The building gained its present name in the 1920s from a dry-goods company, but it later served as an armory annex and a chinaware importer.

In the late 1970s, the property was renovated into an office building with ground-floor restaurant space. Menashe said his company’s renovation 鈥� which is under way with the demolition of the fifth floor’s interior 鈥� will cost approximately $1 million.

The firm has hired聽 and for the job, and Menashe said the plan is to restore some of the original character.

鈥淭here are one-foot-square old-growth beams that we’re taking the paint and drywall off of; exposing and sanding down to the basics,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his building just has great bones.鈥�

Fortis will install a staircase in the center of the floor plate to connect the fourth and fifth floors, and Menashe said the company will add light to the exterior to brighten it. Gevurtz Menashe also purchased a half-block piece of property adjacent to the building for parking purposes.

And with the recent renovation of the Globe Hotel Building to suit the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, Menashe sees a lot of potential for future development in the neighborhood.

For Menashe, the move is a homecoming of sorts. In 1910, his grandfather and six great uncles immigrated to the United States, and they all had businesses in the Old Town area.

鈥淭hat was about a hundred years ago, so it’s just kind of a return to my roots,鈥� he said.