by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
The Duval County Courthouse is adjusting to growth with temporary moves and renovations this month, as four new judges move in and master planning for new facilities continues.
Two new courtrooms and four new judges’ chambers were recently completed on the courthouse’s fifth floor, according to Britt Beasley, the court administrator. He said several departments have been shuffling to other locations to create room for the new judges. The State Attorney’s Office has partially relocated to the City Hall Annex, he said, and several administrative offices have moved to a leased space on Duval Street.
More relocations will follow, according to Chad Fransen, who works in project controls for the City’s Public Works Department. He said City departments in the Annex will continue to move into the Ed Ball Building on Hogan Street to make room for courthouse departments.
“By the end of March, you’ll have no City Annex left in the annex,” said Fransen. “It will basically become the courthouse annex.”
He said the moves and renovations are all “interim” because they’re only designed to accomodate growth for the next three years or so, until a new courthouse facility can be built. Plans for a new complex were delayed by Mayor John Peyton a few years ago, when he deemed the project an overpriced “Taj Mahal.”
Recently, local government has been working with the team of Auchter/Perry/McCall/Rink Design/DLR Group as the design/build consultant on the new courthouse, which currently has a budget of $263.5 million. The new courthouse project is in the middle of master planning, said Fransen.
“It (the temporary moving) is something that’s come up in the last year because of the growth the judiciary is experiencing,” he said. “Anytime a department or a group grows, you’re either going to cram them to fit or put them here and there.”
The new courtrooms and judges’ chambers on the fifth floor of the courthouse have cost $980,100, according to Fransen. He said renovations underway now – to convert a civil courtroom into a criminal one – have cost $17,000. The conversion involves transforming a bailiffs’ central office into a holding cell for prisoners waiting to enter the courtroom.
Those holding cells are important for courthouse security, Beasely said, but adding them is difficult considering the limited space in the building. He said several civil courtrooms are used for criminal proceedings because of the rising number of criminal cases.
Beasley said more courtrooms and judges’ chambers are needed, but the exact number planned is up in the air. Five more courtrooms were recently added at a leased space on Beach Boulevard, as well.
“It (the space issue) is something we’ve kind of wrestled with for years,” he said.
Beasley said “the general condition of this building” has been an issue since he started working at the courthouse 18 years ago. He cited one example of a county judge whose ceiling recently gave way because of water damage.
When asked how the building’s aging conditions – combined with frequent renovations and moves – affect the morale of visitors and workers, one courthouse employee declined to be quoted. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“It’s bad,” she said. “But I don’t know. I just work here.”