Plans for a new Bartholomew County Court Services Building are moving ahead, as the city has reached a deal on a property purchase for the project.
On Dec. 21, the Columbus Redevelopment Commission approved an agreement to purchase property at 555 First St. in Columbus from Tony Moravec for $555,000.
The new court services building will be 9,344 square feet in size and one-story tall, according to a staff report from the city plan commission.
“This will be a cash sale, and they’d like to get this closed and accomplished hopefully by Jan. 3,” said commission attorney Stan Gamso. “I don’t know that we necessarily work quite that fast, but we’ll certainly get that done.”
He added that this is an “as is sale,” and the city will play all closing costs on the property and any additional costs that might come up as a result of the sale.
The agreement also gives Moravec the option to purchase two parcels of riverfront property for $300,000, Gamso said. The commission has the titles to these parcels.
Currently, there is work that needs to be done in regards to the railroad and some “environmental issues that are still unknown,” he added.
“Once we get all that resolved, then Mr. Moravec and his team will purchase those properties from us,” Gamso said. He added that if that transaction does not end up taking place, it would not affect the sale of the First Street building.
Redevelopment director Heather Pope said that the parcel is located at 15 Brown St. The other doesn’t have an address, she said, but is listed on the GIS as 46 East and Water Street.
Gamso said that while the seller would like to finish the transaction by the end of the year, the commission cannot spend more than $500,000, so they will need to have this purchase approved by the city council.
Pope said that this request will be on the agenda for the council’s Jan. 5 meeting, and added that the city opened up the court services building project for bids on Dec. 15.
Pope said these bids are currently being reviewed by Steve Risting, the building’s architect, and David Doup, who acts as an owner’s representative and project manager for the county commissioners.
She said that the redevelopment commission will likely have a special meeting sometime before their January meeting to consider bids. She said that Dunlap and Company, Inc., is the only company who has entered a bid to be the general contractor for the project, though other companies have submitted bids for electrical or mechanical work.
Dunlap’s bid for general contractor is $2,885,000. They also submitted a $565,000 bid for mechanical work and a $3,425,000 bid to do both general and mechanical contracting.
“Once the contractor has been engaged, it’s about a 12-month long process to construct the building,” Pope said. “So hopefully by this time next year, we’ll be very close to having a new court services center.”
Taylor Brothers Construction Co. has been selected by the Bartholomew County Commissioners to manage pre-construction and construction phases for the building.
Current plans call for the current court services building, located in the former Elks Club at 507 Third St., to be torn down. That would empty an entire county-owned block for the city’s new hotel and conference center between Second, Franklin, Third and Lafayette streets.
The city receives that property as part of a land swap. In exchange, construction of the new court services building will mostly be handled by the city.
In July, Pope said that Sprague Hotel Developers have put the hotel conference center project on hold until the hospitality industry recovers from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
