New courthouse won’t be cheap

A new Thurston County courthouse may yet be in Olympia’s future. How soon and where it’ll go are major questions that county leaders have only begun to explore.

But last week’s feasibility report from consultants splashed cold water on any dream of getting a sparkling new facility right away.

The options — for either a new complex or a massive renovation of the hilltop courthouse built in the 1970s — will be well over $150 million under several scenarios outlined by consultants.

It was a little surprising for us to learn the cheapest option — and we use the term cheap advisedly, because it’s $171 million — is to relocate county elected officials’ offices and both District Court and Superior Court to a new site somewhere in downtown Olympia. This could require three city blocks or 4.3 acres.

Such a project would be a boon to the downtown, which we find encouraging. But the cost is daunting. The county already is struggling to pay for its newly opened jail, and commissioners are likely to boost spending in December to allow a significant upgrade in local courts’ pretrial services.

“It’s going to take a lot of work. It’s not something we can do right away,” County Commission chairwoman Cathy Wolfe said last week.

But Wolfe said the early sticker shock doesn’t kill the idea outright.

Of the county’s 1,018 employees, about 500 are at the hillside courthouse built in the 1970s on a site overlooking Capitol Lake and the state Capitol. Only those courthouse staffers would be relocated under the scenarios painted by architectural firms Thomas Architecture Studio in Olympia and HOK, a national firm in St. Louis.

Judges in our local courts have raised concerns about security. In Superior Court, the judges share back hallways with offenders, and the District Court lobby is a place where judges, attorneys, jurors and defendants cross paths. The five county-owned structures also are wearing out and reaching capacity, according to county manager Cliff Moore.

Keeping the courthouse on its existing 21-acre campus, renovating the buildings and adding a parking structure may be the most expensive option. Consultants said this could cost $196 million. Such a project could extend the life of the buildings by three to five decades but would come in phases and require about four years to complete.

Another option is to move everything to a suburban location, away from the urban core, which could cost $178 million. A more rural option might cost $162 million.

It’s uncertain how much the county could receive for its existing site if it were sold. One preliminary figure is $23 million. That’s doesn’t buy down much of the potential new debt.

County voters have been shy about approving tax bonds for new county buildings. But officials are exploring what a lease-to-own arrangement might cost. The county now spends about $2.3 million to house its courthouse staff each year and another $1.1 million for maintenance and IT; some of that could defray lease costs in a new building.

Given the recent experience of building a jail that the county could not afford to open for five years, Wolfe and her colleagues would be wise to move slowly and carefully.

This story was originally published September 14, 2015 at 5:01 PM with the headline "New courthouse won’t be cheap."