Madison County’s new courthouse would cost more than $150 million and take at least five years to finish, according to a study presented to county commissioners Wednesday.

Nevertheless, commissioners seem poised to start the process, once they decide whether to go with one large building or two smaller ones on two sites. In two of four site options presented by a consultant, a courthouse would continue to stand on Courthouse Square downtown.

Faced with the prospect of rising maintenance costs for the 1960s-era courthouse, commissioners hired Matheny Goldmon Architecture and Interiors last year to prepare a feasibility study that compares two options for new construction. The consultant was charged with outlining costs, schedules and impacts on the downtown landscape under the two options, but not to prepare design concepts or building sketches.

Nevertheless, architect Paul Matheny of Matheny Goldmon Architecture and Interiors said at the commission’s Wednesday work session, “We don’t want to put something back that is going to be less than appealing to the public.”

Matheny said a prime concern was to plan for future growth.

“We want to do something that the county is proud of … [and] we want to provide you with an efficient building that is going to have along life cycle and low maintenance over time.”

In developing the analysis, Matheny Goldmon surveyed county workers, collected data on use and modeled space needs out to 2075. Angie Lyon, director of PreDesign Services and client relations for Matheny Goldmon, said the existing courthouse was not “a starting point” for the feasibility study.

“We wanted to start from, ‘what are your needs, and how do you operate, and what’s that look like into the future?’ ” she said. “We know there are inadequacies in this building, and we know that some of those really impact how some departments function.”

Two options

The feasibility study’s first option would raze and rebuild the courthouse on the existing Courthouse Square parcel downtown. The second would split the county’s administrative and judicial functions between a “justice annex” to be built nearby and a new, smaller courthouse on the square.

Both would include space for 12 circuit courtrooms and seven more for district and probate courts, and both would significantly increase available square footage. The current courthouse encompasses about 198,000 usable square feet, the study notes, but either plan calls for about 20% more space.

The single-building option would cost an estimated $173.7 million, according to the study. But $23.1 million comes from the need to lease up to 60,000 square feet to house court and county functions while construction is taking place. This option would take an estimated five years of construction, including 3½ years of construction time on the square.

A combined building would have 21% more square footage than the current courthouse – but might seem much bigger. Its footprint on the square would be larger, its 10 floors would stand taller, and those two factors would, “likely further dwarf the adjacent historic buildings on the square,” the study notes.

The second option would place an eight-story, 193,100 square foot judicial annex at 320 Fountain Circle and a three-story, 59,000 square foot courthouse on the square after the current courthouse is demolished. Construction would likely take six years, with 27 months of that on the square.

At an estimated $154 million, the two-building option is cheaper because a temporary court facility would not be needed, and an existing parking deck adjacent to the proposed annex could accommodate up to 200 vehicles.

Matheny Goldmon also examined two other options: one that would build a single courthouse on the former city inspection department site at 320 Fountain Circle, and one that would build a single courthouse on an unspecified property downtown.

Yet neither option seemed to gain traction at the commission’s Wednesday work session. Cost savings compared with the first two options would be negligible or nonexistent, and both commissioners and Matheny Goldmon staff emphasized a desire to maintain a courthouse presence on the square.

Although several raised questions about costs, commissioners seemed prepared to move ahead on the project, which has been discussed for years.

“It’s not really efficient to build a courthouse, but it’s time,” Commissioner Craig Hill said.