by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
There is a good chance the new $211 million Duval County Courthouse could be completed as much as six months later than the planned late 2005 date.
“There is a potential for delay,” said Sam Mousa, the City’s chief administrative officer. “We were planning on having the old federal courthouse by now.”
In December 2001, the City made a deal with the General Services Administration to swap the old federal courthouse in exchange for 104 City-owned parking spaces in the Water Street garage. Per the agreement, GSA was to start moving federal judges and employees into the new United States Courthouse in October 2002 and be completely out of the old federal courthouse by early January. The City plans to renovate the old federal courthouse into offices for the state attorney and public defender and incorporate the building into the six-block county courthouse complex.
The United States Postal Service also has a facility in the old federal courthouse. Because they haven’t found another suitable location yet and the GSA isn’t done moving its employees, it may be as late as June 30 before the City officially gets its hands on the courthouse and can begin demolition and asbestos abatement.
Mousa said that delay explains the possible delay in the delivery date of the new county courthouse. However, a late 2005 completion date isn’t impossible.
“We can still possible make up the time,” said Mousa. “The delay has nothing to do with the architect. In fact, we signed the final contract with Cannon Design on Oct. 8 [2002] and they are working towards completing the pre-schematic design phase.
“There is no issue with the architect or anything other than we are at the mercy of the GSA in taking over the old federal courthouse.”
Mousa said Better Jacksonville Plan officials will take many things into consideration before approving a plan that would accelerate infrastructure work and construction for the sake of delivering a completed courthouse on time. Above all, cost becomes the big issue.
“It matters from an escalation of price standpoint,” explained Mousa, adding the City is still negotiating with Beers Skanska to be the construction manager and expects to reach an agreement soon. Mousa said at some point a guaranteed maximum price for the courthouse will be reached between the City and Beers and that price is non-negotiable. “Once you lock in on that, it’s not an issue. There’s going to come a time in the next year when Beers comes to us and says, ‘Here’s our GNP for the project.’ They will guarantee that they will build it for a certain cost.”
Mousa said the possible delay should not come as a surprise to anyone.
“When we set that date, we didn’t have an architect, program manager or construction manager,” he said. “For a project of this magnitude, six months on either side of the date is great.”