Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Long-awaited move eyed

After more than two years of delays, the Clark County District Court hopes to begin moving into the new Regional Justice Center before the end of the year, the court administrator told judges Wednesday.

But the long-delayed $185 million construction project will already be three courtrooms short by the time it opens, the administrator, Chuck Short, said. The center will have to undergo more construction as it opens to make more space.

Short updated the judges on the project after meeting with two assistant county managers Wednesday morning to plan for the logistics of the move, he said.

Once the county takes possession of the 17-story downtown building, it will still be months before it can be used, said Randy Walker, county aviation director, who is overseeing the completion of the project.

The building was originally slated to be completed in 2002 at a cost of $170 million.

"It will be summer" before the judges and the rest of the court system can make the full transfer from the current site to the new one, Walker said.

The building at South Casino Center and Clark Avenue will house city and county courts, with the Nevada Supreme Court occupying the top floor. The move-in process will take six months, officials said.

District court officials have already started to buy furniture and technology in anticipation of the move, Short said, adding, "It takes a long time to have (the furniture) manufactured, delivered and installed."

Short added that AF Construction, the embattled firm responsible for construction of the Regional Justice Center, has delivered more than 1,000 of the 1,804 keys needed for access to the building. The key deliveries began in mid-October.

He said the only keys not in the possession of the courthouse are for the telecommunications and electrical rooms as well as those for the exterior aluminum doors because the contractor still needs those.

The keys, however, constitute only one of many steps needed before the actual occupation of the new building can take place.

Walker said that when he surveyed the site recently he saw 11 leaks in the building, and "that's not acceptable."

He added that although the "base scope," or original design work, on the center is for the most part completed, there are problems with the building -- such as the leaks -- that would need to be completed before any court employees can work there.

But several missing elements to the project are more serious than the leaks, officials said.

The Regional Justice Center still does not have three courtrooms and chambers for several judges, and the designing and construction of those courtrooms has not yet taken place, officials said.

When the center was originally designed, the legislature had not approved the two district judges and one justice who are scheduled to work out of those yet-to-be built courtroom, Walker sai. He added that the construction of the additional courtrooms would not hinder moving into the Regional Justice Center.

"They decided to build for the exact number of judges, and at the time (the facility was designed) there were 19 district judges and eight justices," Short said.

Short has been involved in talks with the county on the designing and construction of the new courtrooms. "Now we have 21 district judges and nine justices. But the facilities were designed with some expansion in mind."

According to Walker, the construction of the additional courtrooms and chambers would not delay occupying the building in the summer of 2005 because the Regional Justice Center had been designed to hold an additional five "shells" on the 16th floor or the 10th floor which could be used to house the judges.

"You don't have to close down the Regional Justice Center to do work inside," Walker said, who added that AF Construction will not design or build the three additional courtrooms. Construction for the additional rooms will not begin until all current construction is completed, he said.

If the new courtrooms are not completed by the time the Regional Justice Center opens, however, there are few options available to the court officials slated to work there, said Michael Sommermeyer, the district court spokesman who is also on the Court's moving committee.

Although keeping the current courthouse open for just three judges is a possibility, it is not an ideal situation and is not "cost effective," Sommermeyer said.

A more likely option would be for the judges to work out of a temporary site while their courtrooms and chambers are being finished at the Regional Justice Center, he said. One temporary site could be the Complex Litigation Center at 300 6th Street behind the Federal Building, he said.

"We'll find a solution; we always do," Sommermeyer said Monday.

Terry Murphy, a consultant with Strategic Solutions who is acting as the spokeswoman for AF Construction, said that no county official has contacted AF Construction about building any new courtrooms.

AF Construction has been criticized in the past for not being qualified to build the Regional Justice Center and has been blamed by the county for the 34-month delay in completing the project.

The county stopped paying AF Construction in March 2003 because of defects in the construction and has been levying $12,000-a-day fines against the company for every day the building is not completed, Walker said.

AF Construction claimed county design flaws caused much of the delays and some of the defects, and sued the county, charging the county with mismanagement, breach of contract and defamation in connection with the justice center and related Clark County Detention Center expansion.

The case has been dismissed and both parties are headed to arbitration over construction delays and payments.

Sun reporter Molly Ball contributed to this story.

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