San Diego Courthouse Project Not A P3

California officials liked their P3 experience so well in Long Beach, California they've opted against that controversial approach for building a brand new courthouse in San Diego. The central courthouse, which will house 71 criminal and civil courtrooms, will cost $555 million to build and be paid for by court fees and fines. It is scheduled to open in 2016. The same San Francisco-based architect which is serving on the design team of the winning bidder for Indianapolis' proposed criminal justice center project, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, designed San Diego's new courthouse.

The downtown mafia in Indianapolis insisted it was bad economic development to keep the criminal courts and jail in downtown Indianapolis, but in San Diego a shimmering 22-story skyscraper will stand right smack in the middle of downtown because of the concentration of legal and law enforcement activities there. It will sit across the street from a luxury W Hotel. A tunnel connecting the courthouse to the jail has been on hold for the time being due to its $25 million cost, but it might be added later if a new parking garage is built.

Here's how San Diego's new courthouse will look floor-by-floor according to the U-T San Diego:

1: Court business, felony arraignment courtrooms and lobby with radiant heat flooring
2: Court business and misdemeanor arraignment courtrooms
3: Jury assembly, cafe and outdoor public terrace
4: Family law business offices, and judges chambers on Floors 4-22
5-8: Family law courtrooms
9-10: Civil law courts
11-22: Criminal courts
Lower basement: 80 parking spaces for judges and court vehicles
1st basement: Sallyport for prisoner transportation vehicles, about 40 multiple occupant cells; showers and changing rooms for bike commuters and electrical vehicle charging stations on one or both levels.

Officials are also considering what to do with the old courthouse built in 1961. California officials hope a developer will be willing to buy the courthouse property, demolish it and build a new high-rise development on its site. Real estate experts believe a private developer might pay as much as $36 million to acquire the two prime downtown blocks. In Indianapolis, the downtown mafia is already cutting deals to have the City of Indianapolis give away the prime real estate on which the county jail sits for free to a developer, along with tens of millions in subsidies from the downtown TIF fund to redevelop the site. Downtown Indianapolis is such a great place to build that only real estate developers who are given the land for free and receive 20-25% of the development costs as a subsidy are willing to build there.

San Diego's existing central courthouse