County plans to build new courthouse by 2032 » Urban Milwaukee

Milwaukee County could get a new criminal court by 2032.

Ten years after county officials agreed a replacement was needed, planning for a new criminal court has begun in earnest. Significant funding has been earmarked for design in 2024, and officials expect construction to begin by 2029.

Criminal court operations are currently conducted out of the Safety Building at 821 W. State Street. The building is old, in dire need of renovation, slows down the criminal justice system and poses a safety risk to the public and court staff, county officials say.

The courthouse project will preserve and renovate what authorities have designated as the historic District Courthouse, a monumental neoclassical building at 901 N. 9th Street that was built in 1931.

The project is one of the largest in county history and will potentially cost $500 million to complete. Funding has historically been a challenge for the county, which has an estimated $1 billion in deferred maintenance and infrastructure needs. Inflation has added additional stress to the already complicated project, pushing cost estimates up from around $327 million in 2019 to over $400 million.

“So when we talk about the cost of this project, we should talk about a cost range,” Stuart Carronthe head of the building management told the district supervisor on Monday. “Somewhere between 400 and 500 million.”

Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Criminal court proceedings are currently held in courtrooms in the Safety Building, built in 1929. It does not meet modern standards for a criminal court and threatens the safety and proper functioning of the court system. To perform all the necessary maintenance and bring the building up to modern standards and regulations, the county would have to spend an estimated $333.5 million, according to a recent report. But that still would not be enough, as some areas of the building are considered “functionally obsolete” and no amount of retrofitting could make them usable for modern court operations, said Aaron HertzbergDirector of the county’s Department of Administrative Services (DAS), which is overseeing the project.

The building’s facade is crumbling, its public and electrical systems are outdated and break down regularly, and moisture and flooding have damaged evidence stored at the county courthouse. The county allocates $500,000 each year for emergency maintenance of the building, according to the report presented to the county council’s community, environment and economic development committee.

The building raises safety concerns for the court system because defendants, jurors, families, witnesses and court personnel all use the same hallways to get to courtrooms, increasing the potential for conflict. This slows down justice in the state’s largest judicial district as court officials and bailiffs try to maintain order and security. The building does not comply with courthouse regulations issued by the state Supreme Court.

“We are putting our jurors, the public and our staff at risk because things are now set up in a way that does not comply with the Supreme Court rules,” the chief judge said. Carl Ashley he told the committee.

In 2024, $9.45 million was budgeted to begin planning the new courthouse. The county is already struggling to maintain funding just for this phase of the project, as planning costs will likely consume much of the county’s cash budget for infrastructure projects next year. State and federal funds will be critical to getting the project to the construction phase. Federal grants and the next state budget cycle are critical to planning efforts right now, Carron said.

Part of the planning work currently underway involves the exact location of the new courthouse. The original idea was to move court operations to a temporary facility, demolish the security building, and build a new building in its place. In this scenario, criminal court operations would be relocated for more than two years. The county has brought in planning consultants to review other options and test whether this plan makes sense.

“But the short answer is that we are looking at all options,” Hertzberg said.

Existing members must be logged in to view the interactive map. Log in.

Related legislation: Information report on court planning