That’s how the leadership of the Brooklyn Bar Association described the process of selling the 19th-century building that the legal association has resided in for over 100 years. 

To commemorate this turning point in the bar association’s history, the group held a “Last Bash” for the building at 123 Remsen St. in Downtown Brooklyn on Oct. 29, in which its members mourned the end of an era.

“The number of people that told me what this building meant to them. It wasn’t just a building; it was somewhere where young attorneys grew up, where they learned the practice, where they became friends with the other attorneys,” BBA Second Vice President Grace Borrino said. “I repeatedly have heard this organization be spoken about as a family, and this is the home. 

Last year, the Brooklyn Bar Association publicly listed the building, signed a contract with Arial Property Advisors earlier this year, and is in the process of closing on a deal to sell the example of French revivalist architecture for $12 million. 

At the bash, its members poured into the 19th-century wood-paneled ballroom for a party that involved dinner, drink, old photographs of the bar association’s bygone eras, and speculation about what the future for the bar association holds.

The farewell speeches described the departure as a sad but necessary change: members were saying goodbye to a cherished building, with a sense of cautious optimism about the bar association’s community and its mission.

“We mourn places, traditions, and chapters of our lives that have shaped us. Feeling that sadness doesn’t mean we’re unwilling to move forward. It means this place mattered,” bar association President Daniel Antonelli said in a speech.

The decision to sell the building has its roots in financial issues and declining rates of membership that BBA has in common with bar associations across the country. Despite the social changes that will stem from not having a physical gathering and office space, the reality was that cashing in on one of its most valuable assets has the opportunity to fund the BBA’s programming for years to come, according to its president.

“This building has one final gift to give. The opportunity to sustain our Brooklyn Bar Association’s mission for generations to come,” Antonelli said.

The sale will temporarily leave the BBA without a long-term brick-and-mortar location, but the search is underway for a new home. Right now, Antonelli said that the association has a temporary co-working space ready in the Regus building in Downtown Brooklyn’s MetroTech (Brooklyn Commons) Plaza, but the future remains a top topic of discussion. 

“It’s just a matter of figuring out the specifics,” Antonelli said. “That’s going to hold us over until we decide exactly what we’re looking for and then search for it, find it, probably do some renovation, and then move in. So we’re hoping that we’ll have a new long-term home in 2027.”

Explaining the Brooklyn Bar Association’s decision to sell and relocate

Antonelli said he joined the BBA in 2009 and quickly developed an attachment to both the building and the community, and knew early on that he aspired to eventually lead the organization. Little did he know that time would come at a crossroads.

Antonelli credited his predecessor, former President Christina Golkin, with starting the difficult process of setting the sale in motion. The association’s financial difficulties trace back to the mid-2010s and were compounded by the effects of COVID-19 and the retirement of its longtime executive director Avery Eli Okin in 2022. Although selling the building had been discussed for years, members’ emotional attachment—and the difficulty of reaching agreement among 28 trustees and roughly 30 past presidents—slowed the decision.

Golkin set up a presentation to the BBA’s board that Antonelli said left him with the conclusion that without selling, the association would not survive. In the next year, the bar association will have to make key decisions about what its future looks like. The entire board will weigh in, but he made clear he strongly favored maintaining a permanent home.

“A lot of our associations are doing really well with no physical space. CLE are online; who needs to meet in person?  I think when we’re not meeting in person, we’re losing an element of us being human,” he said. “If we don’t look each other in the eye and shake each other’s hands and hug, then we lose a little something of ourselves, so I feel that there’s a tremendous value in having a home.”

Antonelli is looking for locations to stay relatively close in the Brooklyn Heights or Downtown Brooklyn area. The next headquarters would not need anything so stately or vintage as Remsen Street’s ballroom, but it should offer more than office space: members should be able to meet, socialize, share the legal association’s history and make the space their own.

First Vice President Bruno Codispoti, who co-hosted the gathering with Borrino, encouraged members to stay optimistic about the future. He emphasized that the association’s identity depends on its people, not its address before running through an overview commemorating the building’s history as a way of saying farewell.

Codispoti said the building dated to 1872 and that the BBA purchased it in 1918 for $33,000, which would be around $800,000 adjusted for inflation. The building went through three owners in the late 1800s after being built by Charles Condon, prominent banker and philanthropist.

“Selling it for $12 million, I think we did OK,” Codispoti said.

BBA President-elect Angelique Moreno, who will take over the role from Antonelli in the summer, echoed Codispoti’s sentiments in her speech.

“Buildings may change, but the heart of the Brooklyn Bar Association has always been all of you guys, and I truly believe that our next chapter is gonna be incredibly exciting,” Moreno said.

123 Remsen Street in Downtown BrooklynPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud Brooklyn Bar Association signPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud Former BBA President Christina Golkin, left and President Daniel AntonelliPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud BBA historical photographsPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud Partygoers honored the BBA’s Remsen Street ballroom one last time.Photo by Ramy Mahmoud Photo by Ramy Mahmoud From left, Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey S. Sunshine, Brooklyn County Clerk Nancy Sunshine and retired judge Lawrence KnipelPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud Antonelli, left, and BBA First Vice President Bruno Codispoti.Photo by Ramy Mahmoud Photo by Ramy Mahmoud First Vice President Bruno Codispoti, right, co-hosted the gathering with Second Vice President Grace Borrino.Photo by Ramy Mahmoud Photo by Ramy Mahmoud BBA President-elect Angelique Moreno