Senator celebrates courthouse funding
Celebrating the award of $190 million to replace the aging Fort Lauderdale federal courthouse, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has set his sights on getting money for a new one for West Palm Beach, too.
Nelson requested U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas ask Chief Judge Michael Moore to form a task force to spearhead the effort for a new West Palm Beach district courthouse. Dimitrouleas is chairman of the task force created about a decade ago for Fort Lauderdale’s effort.
“We’re going to have to do the same for West Palm Beach because it has an old federal courthouse as well,” Nelson said during his Fort Lauderdale courthouse appearance Wednesday with Mayor Dean Trantalis and court officials. The West Palm Beach courthouse, built in 1973, is at 701 Clematis St.
Nelson said a site decision for the new downtown Fort Lauderdale courthouse could come from the General Services Administration as early as June and “then let’s get this project going.” He took a tour of the courthouse while officials pointed out many of the leaks that have plagued the building.
The federal decision to replace the 39-year-old courthouse came after a 2016 assessment that concluded it had a leaking roof and mold problems, lacked sufficient office space and wasn't designed for current federal security requirements. The $1.3 trillion Omnibus spending bill approved March 23 included $190 million for the new building. The current courthouse cost $17 million in 1979.
Officials don’t know yet if the existing courthouse will be torn down or if it might be used for other federal office space.
Even new, the courthouse had its critics, particularly because of its austere concrete Brutalist style designed by William Morgan, similar to nearby Fort Lauderdale City Hall and the Broward Main Library. The courthouse, at 299 E. Broward Blvd., needed a face-lift to improve security just six years after it opened.
“This is, as far as a federal building is concerned, the pits — ist` terrible,” said former Congressman E. Clay Shaw Jr., in 1985. Shaw had an office in the building at the time.
One of the courthouse’s prime architectural features — an exterior reflecting pool and cascading waterfalls visible in tiers from Broward Boulevard — have been turned off and left dry for years.
Local officials have been pushing for a replacement for more than a decade, but the courthouse did not make the federal priority list until 2016, when it was ranked third nationally for replacement. The local task force includes city, county, federal and court representatives.
Fort Lauderdale's courthouse is in the central area for the Southern District of Florida, which handles cases from Vero Beach to Key West.
lbarszewski@sunsentinel .com, 954-356-4556 or Twitter @lbarszewski