New partners?

A citycounty complex may grow in Lauderdale.

FORT LAUDERDALE — A combined government campus that would serve both Broward County and the city of Fort Lauderdale is slowly gaining traction as a potential gateway for the burgeoning downtown area, officials say.

Since early last year, county and city officials have discussed the development of a single complex that would house offices and meeting spaces for the two local governments. While an agreement remains a work in progress, the idea would be to develop replacements for the aging City Hall, which dates back to the 1960s, and the Broward County Governmental Center, which has occupied the site of a former Burdines department store since 1980.

And while the two sides have talked, Congress fortuitously authorized $190 million to replace another aging government structure: the U.S. District Courthouse on East Broward Boulevard that was built in 1979. A vote in Washington on the layout and location of a new courthouse is expected before the mid-term November elections, officials say.

For public- and private-sector planners who have yearned to see downtown Fort Lauderdale become a vibrant South Florida urban hub, the proposed public-sector projects could not have come at a more opportune time.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis sees the effort as a way to create a badly needed “gateway” for a municipality that has been bursting with residential and commercial development since the end of the Great Recession.

“We want to make sure it’s a special project for when we do come up with a plan, it speaks well to the entry of downtown and the city of Fort Lauderdale being the county seat,” Trantalis said.

Since last year, a four-member group that includes the mayor, Assistant City Manager Christopher Lagerbloom, Broward County Commissioner Chip LaMarca and Assistant County Administrator Alan Cohen has served as a task force for the effort.

City and county staffers are drafting an agreement that the two governments can use as a guide. “There is no agreement at this point,” said Scott Wyman, assistant to the Fort Lauderdale mayor. “It should come to the two commissions within the next month or so.”

The goals

Private and public officials with knowledge of the planning say it’s too early to identify a precise site for the new campus, or what a new building or buildings would look like. Other questions to be answered include who would be the landlord, and whether a private developer would be involved.

But they agree that now is the time for the city and county to leverage the private-sector development that has emerged around the downtown area. In the past five years, Flagler Village has ex-

ploded with modern apartment complexes, shops, hotels and a burgeoning arts district. From a new station on the other side of the Florida East Coast Railway tracks from City Hall, the newly arrived Brightline rail line started daily service connecting Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

By 2023, according to the real estate services firm Colliers International, the population of the central business district will have grown by more than 5,000 residents, from 38,788 to 44,279.

According to LaMarca, planners have looked at a twin-tower arrangement with a joint public space in between, as well as a single tower option.

He said the task force has conducted an assessment of which government agencies could be moved out of downtown and relocated — possibly to properties near Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport in the northwest part of the city.

According to individuals familiar with the governments’ needs, the county requires 300,000 square feet of space while the city requires 150,000.

From a broader view, planners are looking to give the spaces around City Hall and the Brightline and Broward Transit stations a “civic center type feel,” where pedestrians can walk about more easily and with convenient access to nearby destinations such as Flagler Village and the arts district.

To accomplish the “gateway” effect, planners are looking at shrinking the bus terminal on the east side of the railroad tracks and routing the buses toward the back of the site they currently use. That would open up the front portion of the terminal site, near Broward Boulevard, to foot traffic.

Trantalis said he would like to see retail options for the growing downtown population. “We’re trying to encourage a downtown developer to build a vertical mall,” he said.

There are practical and economic benefits in creating a single home for both local governments, officials said.

“Bringing these two important organizations together, we believe would foster a more collaborative relationship between the two,” said Cohen, the assistant county administrator.

“Both of us are in older, inefficient structures,” he said. “Having new footprints for both organizations would be beneficial. From the county side, we could work with a lot less space than we have now.”

“We could have a meeting center with conference rooms that supported the needs of both organizations,” Cohen added, “rather than each of us having our own meeting facilities.” Other efficiencies could come from consolidating security, maintenance, janitorial and even cafeteria services.

Whither the federal courthouse?

Long awaited by lawyers, judges, elected officials and their constituents, a new federal courthouse has been regarded as a must for years. Critics have said the courtrooms and office spaces are too small and the entire building is vulnerable to flooding and persistent water intrusion. Worse, the courthouse fails to measure up to modern-day security standards.

Earlier this year, Congress stoked hopes of progress when it approved millions for construction.

“The announcement about the courthouse funding was one of the highlights of my career as mayor,” said former Fort Lauderdale Mayor John P. “Jack” Seiler, an attorney who is now in private practice. “For that to come to fruition, it’s great for the city of Fort Lauderdale and Broward County and the tricounty region.”

It remains unclear whether the courthouse will be a part of the proposed city-county complex or a standalone structure nearby. Seiler, a longtime member of a local task force that works closely on the matter with the federal government, said he thinks it will land somewhere within the boundaries of the downtown development district.

Both Seiler and Chief U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore said last week that Congress must pass a detailed prospectus that outlines everything from office and courtroom sizes to setback requirements from the street. The prospectus, which was recently moved from the General Services Administration to the Office of Management and Budget, will likely be voted on before the mid-term elections in November.

“Congress now has to see what they’re getting,” Seiler said. Despite the deep partisan divides in Washington, Seiler said there has been no reluctance among South Florida’s representatives in Congress to support the project.

“The federal courthouse has an urgency to it that has been recognized, and funding has been fully approved,” he said. “The congressional members and staff from both parties in both the House and the Senate have been outstanding. We have had the full support of Sen. [Bill] Nelson and Sen. Marco Rubio,” along with every South Florida member of Congress.

“They have all directed their staffs to assist in this process,” he said.