With renovations on the old Commerce Building on Oglethorpe Avenue slated for completion in early December, courthouse planners are ready to move non-judicial offices from the Montgomery Street courthouse and eventually open the way for a top-to-bottom overhaul there.
Those moves will free space for construction of new courtrooms and chambers as well as a realigning of space in the cramped court facility.
“I think that process is going to start in three to six months,” said Chatham County Chief Superior Court Judge Michael Karpf, who is heading a “working group” including judges, courthouse staff, architects and other county representatives.
Karpf, who became chief judge in January, immediately identified renovation of the Montgomery Street courthouse and construction of a new trial court building as his No. 1 priorities.
When completed, Chatham County will have a “court complex” to address its needs for 35 years and beyond, he said.
“It’s an integrated plan, but it all needs to happen,” Karpf said, adding ballpark cost estimates are expected to be in the $110 million to $120 million range.
Still to be addressed is the prize — a four-floor trial court building to be constructed on the site of the old Chatham County jail at Oglethorpe Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
That will be dependent on the next special purpose local option sales tax slated to go to Chatham voters in 2014. Assistant County Manager Pat Monahan said the vote could come as soon as next year, depending on decisions by the governing bodies.
Karpf is optimistic the measure will pass.
“We are proceeding as if it will pass,’ Karpf said. “We believe it will pass.”
First things first
Slated to leave the courthouse at 133 Montgomery St. for the Pete Liakakis Government Building at 222 W. Oglethorpe Ave. are the county tax commissioner, tax assessor and the data center.
Also slated to move there are the Circuit Public Defender’s office from space farther east on Oglethorpe Avenue, as well as child support recovery now housed in the county’s parking garage.
The move will involve about 200 employees and could take until the end of January to complete, Monahan said.
Karpf is already eying conversion of space on the first floor of the courthouse into two courtrooms and three judge’s chambers in the initial step to breaking the current cramped quarters he said has created an environment “so tight there’s hardly room to breathe.”
In addition to adding a third Recorder’s Court and State Court courtroom on the first floor, Chatham County Magistrate Court will also take over Courtroom I on the fourth floor.
“I’m hoping it is a temporary plan,” Karpf said.
Eyesore to come down
The old jail building had been home to the local jail from 1978 until it was vacated in 1989 by the move to the new sheriff’s complex and jail on Chatham Parkway.
It remains an eyesore, especially to those entering the city for the first time.
Chatham County has received permission from the Savannah Historic Review Board to raze the structure, but will wait until funds are available before proceeding, Monahan said.
Costs of razing the old jail are about $2 million, but must wait until funding for the planned new court building is available, Monahan said.
At the same time, Monahan, who has spearheaded the county’s involvement, plans to retire in early January and is working with Michael Kaigler, currently assistant county manager, to take over the project after Monahan retires.
George Bowen will act as construction manager.
Once completed, the new stone-and-glass court building will house a large, multi-purpose courtroom, four State Court and eight Superior Court courtrooms that will take the county “out beyond 2035, a 25-year into-the-future plan and really longer than that,” Karpf said.
The design for the new trial court building, “in broad strokes,” is finished, he said.
Judges know the layout on every floor and how it will lock from the outside, but such items as the exterior material and internal details remain to be hashed out.
Regardless, the existing courthouse has a full plate of needed overhauls and updates including mechanical, heating and air conditioning and handicapped accessible bathrooms, Karpf said.
Future plans call for a re-skinning of the exterior and a new façade on the Montgomery Street entrance.