New courthouse nears completion
For decades, San Antonio’s federal courthouse has stood along East Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard in what used to be a theater that opened for Hemisfair in 1968.
But that building will be vacant before Christmas. Judges, court staff, federal marshals and several federal agencies will move into a new courthouse in mid-december.
The 235,000-squarefoot building sits on 6.3 acres at the southeast corner of West Nueva and South Santa Rosa avenues, where the former police headquarters once stood. It rises three stories next to San Pedro Creek, across the street from the city’s new Public Safety headquarters, adding to a burgeoning area on the western edge of downtown.
The new courthouse, sought for more than 15 years, has eight courtrooms and 13 judges’ chambers. It also will house offices for the federal public defender, U.S. marshals, court clerks, federal probation and pretrial services, the U.S. attorney’s office and the U.S. General Services Administration.
“We’ve been slightly
ahead of schedule and slightly under budget,” said U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez, who led the judiciary’s efforts to get a new courthouse.
“The upcoming completion of the new federal courthouse in San Antonio represents the strong partnership between the General Services Administration,
U.S. courts, members of Congress, San Antonio officials and the local community,” said GSA Acting Regional Administrator Giancarlo Brizzi. “By working together, the new stateof-the-art facility became a reality and will support the judiciary for generations to come.”
Of the total $144.5 million authorized for the new building, $121 million was used for design, construction and related expenses, according to the General Services Administration.
The builder is Brasfield & Gorrie, based in Birmingham, Ala. The GSA said the design architect is Muñoz & Co. with Lake | Flato Architects, both of San Antonio.
In a post on its website, the GSA said construction is nearing completion on the building envelope and continues to progress on the interior.
Rodriguez said court staff will begin getting new badges and seeing the new digs starting the week after Thanksgiving. The move is scheduled for mid-december. The new building is expected to be ready for business, including trials, at the beginning of January.
The current John H. Wood U.S. Courthouse is a midcentury landmark and was originally the Confluence Theatre for Hemisfair ’68. It began its use as a courthouse in the 1970s, during which a second building next door was used for technology
training for federal judges and staff from around the country, and had been known as the Adrian Spears Training Center.
In recent years, the Wood courthouse has been plagued by problems, including flea infestations from wildlife getting into the building, contaminated drinking water, mold, foundation issues, and faulty heating and air conditioning.
For years, Congress didn’t allocate funds to pay for a new courthouse. But a series of San Antonio Express-news stories in 2015 on conditions in the old courthouse led to efforts by U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, former U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, and others in San Antonio’s congressional delegation as well as Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn to secure the $144.5 million in a 2016 spending bill.
Originally, the idea was to build a 305,000-square-foot courthouse, but the estimated cost of about $180 million proved prohibitive, and the original contractor parted ways with the federal government. The project was downsized after office space for the judicial training center was removed from the plans, and Brasfield & Gorie was chosen as the new builder in 2018.
The judiciary and the GSA worked together to relocate the training center to One Alamo Center building along St. Mary’s Street, the GSA said.
The site for the new federal courthouse was secured years ago through a land swap in which the city gets back the Wood building and the old training center building. It was not immediately clear what the city plans to do with the old courthouse or the former training center.
A third building that has been part of the federal court complex, known as the federal building, will remain in its location at Hemisfair park, the GSA said.