Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Fort Lauderdale courthouse included in spending plan
FORT LAUDERDALE — A new federal courthouse for Fort Lauderdale is included in a massive $1.3 trillion federal spending agreement that has bipartisan support and is expected to be approved in the next few days. News that the $190 million downtown project was part of the package reached the city Wednesday from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who phoned the city’s current and former mayors with the good news.
“Look what I brought home to the people,” joked Mayor Dean Trantalis, who had taken office only a day earlier. Trantalis said the courthouse success was due to a combined effort of city, county, federal and court officials, and he thanked “former Mayor Jack Seiler for seeing this through.”
Seiler, who has been a leading advocate for a new courthouse, said he hadn’t received such good news since 2016 when the Secretary of Navy called him to let him know there would be a new USS Fort Lauderdale built.
“I could not be more pleased,” Seiler said. “It’s been a long ride and now it’s a truly rewarding ride. This is what the city of Fort Lauderdale has needed for well over a decade.”
The 39-year-old current courthouse at Broward Boulevard and Northeast Third Avenue has had a leaking roof and mold problems, doesn’t have sufficient office space and wasn’t designed for current federal security requirements. The courthouse has been No. 3 on the priority list for new courthouses since 2016.
The General Services Administration is conducting a feasibility study for the new courthouse that should be completed by June. It will then be up to the GSA to pick a site for the new courthouse.
“That’s the next question. I know that a number of sites have been discussed. They’re all in private hands,” Trantalis said.
Another possibility mentioned at a recent Federal Courthouse Task Force meeting was to put the federal building on the same site as the Broward County Courthouse, creating a “courthouse campus,” Seiler said.
“That was nothing more than a discussion,” he said. “Any discussion of a specific location is premature.”