New courthouse cost continues rise to $345.6 million and could grow higher

The cost of Broward County’s new courthouse is creeping higher, as delays continue to drive up expenses at the downtown Fort Lauderdale tower.

The total tab for the judicial complex has reached $345.6 million and could still grow. At least $18 million of it is tied to mistakes, unforeseen conditions, late changes to courtroom layouts and project delays, according to county documents and interviews with county officials.

The cost has inched ever higher since county commissioners voted six years ago to scale back a $450 million courthouse bond voters rejected at the polls in 2006. That bond would have renovated three satellite courthouses and built a $339 million new one downtown.

County officials hadn’t tabulated a total for the courthouse, two garages and renovations to older courthouse space. They said that despite the ballooning price tag, they haven’t gone over budget.

“We are well within the board-approved project budget for the entire effort,” Assistant County Administrator Alphonso Jefferson said.

Steve Hammond, assistant public works director, said he had $318 million to work with to build the tower on Southeast Sixth Street, with a judicial garage next to it and a 1,000-car employee garage on Andrews Avenue. The tower-garage tab is $276.4 million, the separate employee garage $30.7 million. Together, they’re $307.1 million.

Other elements of the judicial complex, including consultant contracts and renovations of older space, were budgeted separately, he said. Each time those costs grew, the higher tab was approved by county commissioners.

The ultimate cost to the county isn’t settled.

When the tower opens, a milestone Hammond said is likely in two to three weeks, the debate over who should pay for the delays will begin.

For every month since June 2015, when the project missed its deadline to open, the county has paid the design team — Spillis Candela & Partners/Heery/Cartaya Joint Venture — $115,856, a county memo says.

Tuesday, commissioners agreed to pay the Spillis Candela team an additional $695,136, plus $200,000 in optional services, because of the delays.

The same design team made an error with the air conditioning drawings that added $9.2 million to the project cost, Hammond said. He assured commissioners there will be a “day of reckoning” when the project is over.

The county also paid a company to manage the project. The Weitz Co. made more money when the project came in late, county records show; its payments from the county total $16.6 million.

Hammond said the $4.7 million is directly attributable to project delays, and that’s not counting $11.3 million the contractor, James A. Cummings Inc., says it is owed.

Commissioner Tim Ryan said it was critical to keep paying the construction team and hash out disputes later.

COURTESY The price tag has inched ever higher since Broward County commissioners voted six years ago to scale back a $450 million courthouse bond voters rejected at the polls in 2006.