Samantha Neely|The News Herald
PANAMA CITY—Nothing saysgrand opening quitelike bubbly and tacos!
The Burg Law Firmpopped the champagne as they celebrated the grand opening of the firm's new building at 215 Harrison Ave. in downtown Panama City.
Joined by members of the community,the Bay County Chamber of Commerce, and the El Weirdo Taco Truck,Brandon R. Burg,attorney, and owner of the firm,thankedeveryone for joining them for their special momentand said he was excited to have themwitnessthe final product.
“It’sunbelievablyexciting to share with everyone,” Burgsaid.“It’s been so much work to put in here and people have said that, 'we’ve walkedby,and it looks great,' but now to have it done and have peopletake part in it and show what character these buildings downtown really have is really great.”
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The firmoriginally opened back in 2017nearCarillonBeach, yet quickly outgrew that space.Burgsaid theythen moved tothe Nautica PointBuildingand while he thought that would be their long-term home for a while, they found they were outgrowing that space as well.
“It’s always been a goal of mineas afirmto grow a community-wide law firmand we startedoffvery small,” Burg said. “It got to a point where we needed more space physically and if I was going to expand, I wanted to buy something.”
Thenewbuilding was restoredand designed completelyby Burg’s wife, Jennifer Burg, whopreviously had a doctorate in nursing beforeswitching career paths. She saidshe always has been artistic but never had an outlet for her creativity until she started herrenovations projects.
“After the storm, I totally recreated my life,” Jennifer Burg said, referring to Hurricane Michael. “I started renovating properties,restoringproperties and I found a love for historical properties.”
Soonit becameapparentthat evenafter two moves, they still needed to expand theirfirm to accommodate the rapid growth they were experiencing, Jennifer said.So, they began their search for the perfect location to house their firm.
They decided on a building that had been on the market for a while in the downtown area, andbought itin December of 2020, Brandon said.
“I’m a huge believer in what’s going on downtown here and I happened to know the guy that was selling this building,” hesaid. “We were able to acquire it and build out beautiful space with a lot of room for us to grow as a firm but also renovatea building downtown and make it a win-win for everyone.”
Jennifer said the building really connected with her, especially with the location.
“Something really clicked with us where we wanted to invest our mind, heart, soul and time into the community and especially the downtown area,” Jennifer said. “This is where our whole life is. We wanted to find a building on Harrison Avenue that we could revitalize and turn into somethingbeautifulthat can be here fora very longtime.”
Jennifer instantly got to work on renovating, unlocking the hidden gems lost to timeand the hurricane prior.Discoveries, such asredbrickthat wascovered in stuccoanddecorated ceilingtileshidden away after beingdropped three times,were uncovered.
“All the special things that made this building beautiful had been covered up for a matter of 85 years,” Jennifer said.“We came in and I gutted the whole thing and completely startedover,but we were able to have really amazing finds in here.”
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After securing a team of builders and contractorsspecializedinrestoring older buildings, Jennifer addedthefinal changes, such as doors from Europe thatare more than150 years old anda perfected color scheme.She said she is proud of how it captures an older feel whilemaintainingsome modern elements.
“I had no designer, no architect, no nothing,” Jennifer Burg said. “This was 100% me sitting down with a piece of paper and a pencil and designing this thing start to finish, every single detail.”
Brandon said that he loved the renovations and the cherry on top is the staff the firm hasbuilt up over the years.
“We have an amazing team, we have a fantastic group here,” Brandon said.“We’re getting more and more solid team members and it’s really helped us grow a strong organization.”
With all the downtown developments happening and the planned streetscape updates on Harrison Avenue, Brandon saidhe’sexcited to be a part of that transformation.
“The idea that we took a storefront that was nothing, unremarkable,tonowhopefullya great placeto walk past and enjoy ... that’s really cool, I like sharing that with people,"Brandon said.
Jennifer said she wants both clients and locals to feel like downtown is changing and that Burg Law Firm is part of that change.
“We want people to walk in here and be like, ‘wow,’ and to have that feeling that this is the new downtown Panama City,”Jennifer said.“It’s no longer a rundown, sad downtown. This is what we want for the future of our downtown, not just for our building but for everyone to be proud of the area we have.”
