John H. Gomez and his staff, from left, Amy L. Collins, office administrator and paralegal; Hilda Diaz-Gonzalez, language liaison and culture counselor; and Maria F. Palmieri, trial attorney.

Trial lawyer John Gomez has traded one Downtown law office for another, but with one big difference. His name is the only one on the shingle in the Torbati Building, 625 Broadway, Suite 1104. The Gomez Law Firm specializes in cases involving personal injury and wrongful death, defective products, government liability, worker safety, wrongful employment practices and business disputes.

Before opening his own firm, Gomez was with McClellan & Gomez on State Street (now called The McClellan Law Firm).

The law firm includes trial attorney Maria Palmieri, office administrator and paralegal Amy L. Collins, interpreter, translator and cultural liaison Hilda Diaz-Gonzalez, a native of Mexico City, and client counselor Negin Banaei, a native of Iran who is fluent in Farsi.

“We are dedicated to providing legal representation to people and businesses who have suffered harm because of the wrongful conduct of someone else,” says Gomez, president of the firm. Gomez graduated magna cum laude from USD where he received Academic All-American Honors as a member of the Toreros football team. He earned his law degree at Yale Law School. In the past 15 years, he has clerked for a federal judge, litigated for the Los Angeles law firm of Latham & Watkins and was a federal prosecutor.

Gomez teaches trial advocacy skills as an adjunct professor of law at University of San Diego and is on the faculty of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. His law firm (231-0505) has a Web site: thegomezfirm.com.

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Castle Advertising has abandoned Downtown after five years to relocate to Zip code 92102, but another advertising company has moved in. Castle moved its offices to 2470 E St. in Golden Hill, a Craftsman-style home built by Charles and William Quayle for Judge Alfred B. Haines that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The agency purchased the 5,500-square-foot building in 2004 and began remodeling it in preparation for the move. David Castle, son of founder Chuck Castle, runs the company.

Meanwhile, Fresno-based Panagraph Inc. has opened an office at 1133 Columbia St., Suite 101 (733-3455). The marketing and communications firm established the office to support the company’s growing clientele in San Diego, says Mark Astone, CEO of Panagraph. Robert Blodgett mans the office and is responsible for hiring new staff. Astone splits his time between Fresno, San Diego and the firm’s other office in Sacramento.

“Panagraph’s physical presence in San Diego has become increasingly important as the company continues to become more involved at the local level by way of our clients’ interests and activities,” says Astone.

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Dr. Benjamin Camacho of San Diego has purchased the historic Marin Building, a 12,808-square-foot apartment and commercial building at 548-552 Fifth Ave., for $5.15 million. Everarada Alvarado of ACI Commercial represented the seller, Chris LaFornara. Emily Escanlar of Realty Executives Premier represented the buyer.

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Streamload, an Internet service provider for the transfer and storage of personal digital entertainment, has moved to larger headquarters at 525 B St., Suite 1000, from 185 F St., Suite 430. The company is settling into the fourth location since its founding by Steve Iverson in June 1998. It has been Downtown since March 2004. “Among many benefits, our new offices offer proximity to efficient public transportation,” says Iverson. “In fact, over half of our employees either walk, ride bikes or take public transportation each day.” This year, the company was named one of 200 finalists in the Top Private Companies of North America by Red Herring magazine, a finalist in the “2005 Codie Awards” in the category of Best Consumer Productivity Product or Service by The Software & Information Industry Association.

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The San Diego office of Best Best & Krieger has relocated its offices to Downtown’s newest office tower, Broadway 655. Best Best & Krieger will reside on the entire 15th floor, which has 18,000 square feet of usable space. The firm was previously in the Emerald Plaza building, which is directly across Broadway. “We were literally bursting at the seams in our old offices,” says Shawn Hagerty, managing partner. “Our firm is growing very rapidly and we were out of space. The new office gives us plenty of room to expand.” BB&K has had an office in San Diego for 12 years. It has 26 attorneys and plans to grow to 40 in the next three years. Howard Sneed designed the space. Johnson & Jennings was the contractor.

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Swinerton Builders has finished the construction of three underground parking levels at Park Terrace, a mixed-use residential complex at 10th Avenue and K Street. The project was started in August and is expected to be completed in early 2006. It is owned by Park Terrace Corp. LP. Fehlman LaBarre is the design architect. KMA is executive architect. Park Terrace features an eight-story, 59,000-square-foot building comprised of 80 residential units and a 14-story, 120,000-square-foot building comprised of 140 residential units. Some 20,000 square feet of street level commercial retail space is planned.

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Johnson & Jennings General Contracting has completed tenant improvement construction for the 94,703-square-foot headquarters of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, a national law firm in Wells Fargo Plaza at 401 B St. Cheryl Castrence and Pam Van Nort of The Irvine Co. are the property managers for the 24-story high-rise building. David McCurry of CBRE Project Management provided oversight for the $6.2 million project.

Johnson & Jennings also has begun the third phase of tenant improvements for the offices of Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps LLP on the 25th floor of One America Plaza, 600 W. Broadway. Phase three project costs are estimated at $254,500. The work includes the remodel of secretarial stations and interior office areas for the law firm. The space also will feature new carpet, wall finishes, and direct and indirect lighting. Phases one and two totaled $644,570 and entailed the remodel of the existing office space and relocation of the existing law library to the east quadrant of the 25th floor.

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Downtown’s first office condominium project has released its first units for sale. TR Office is being developed by Cruzan/Monroe as part of a mixed-use project at Ninth Avenue and J Street, directly across from centerfield at Petco Park. The project includes 28 loft-style office units ranging from 700 square feet to 1,300 square feet. The office units are located on two floors above the 72-year-old TR Produce Warehouse building, which is being preserved and restored to include 20,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space to be called TR Retail.

Architects are Richard Bundy and David Thompson. Wheelihan Construction is general contractor. Sales of the upper-level office suites are being handled by Bradford Perry of Cushman Wakefield (858) 332-3428, and Barry Mahlberg of Burnham Real Estate (858) 558-5636. Leasing for the retail and restaurant portion of the project is being handled by Bill Shrader and Corinna Gattasso of Burnham (619) 525-2949.

The Downtown Relocations column features news on firms that are abandoning, embracing or expanding in the 92101 ZIP code. Send submissions to Manny Cruz, manny@sandiegometro.com.