As he worries over paint colors and matching up wood stains, Warren M. Barnett compares planning his new office to building a house.

The Chattanooga investment adviser is preparing to move his 25-year-old financial services firm Barnett & Co. nine blocks south, and he says all of the details have become a little overwhelming.

“I am very excited about the move,” Mr. Barnett said, as he stood amid half-filled paint cans in front of a third floor window overlooking downtown Chattanooga on one side and the Southside neighborhood on the other.

The new digs are located above the Southern Star restaurant at the corner of Broad and 13th streets.

Staff Photo by Allison Kwesell-- Warren Barnett, the president of Barnett & Company, stands in the hallway of the new company offices above the new Southern Star Restaurant on Broad Street. The company will move in July.

When the company moved into its current offices six years ago at 430 Chestnut St., it employed four people. The company has grown to seven employees who will move near the end of July.

Barnett & Co. has grown from $50 million in assets under management in 2000 to more than $300 million, according to the company.

“We’ve run out of space,” Mr. Barnett said. “The business has been growing significantly. (The move) is both to accommodate the business as well as for future expansion.”

He founded Barnett & Co. in 1983 as a boutique investment management firm. Today, the firm provides individual portfolio management services.

In the new location, the firm will have 3,250 square feet — almost two-thirds of the third floor — and double its current 1,600 square feet space.

Since the space is in a new building, its principals can design the office just as they want it, something architect Steve Billingsley has helped them achieve, Mr. Barnett said.

“What attracted us to the building was parking, the ease to get in and out of it, and it is centrally located,” he said.

The added room will allow the firm the expand its staff and enhance research capabilities and databases.

Kim Doremus, Mr. Barnett’s assistant, has worked for the company for 11 years and said the new office will make it much easier for employees, some of whom have been sharing offices.

“The space here has become limited,” she said. “The new office will be easy for clients to find and parking will be more convenient.”

When she first walked into the new space, Ms. Doremus said the first thing she noticed was the wonderful view.

“We put all offices around the outside so all the employees will have windows,” she said.

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