[Kevinb]

http://www.590klbj.com/News/Story.aspx?ID=1327514

Austin, TX – The Travis County Commissioners Court unanimously voted today to take steps to purchase one of the last remaining vacant city blocks that is outside all Capitol View Corridors. The prime downtown lot, owned by the Austin Museum of Art (AMOA), anchors the south side of Republic Square Park and is bounded by Third, Fourth, San Antonio and Guadalupe Streets.
This acquisition will enable two organizations to move forward with long-standing civic projects. Travis County wants to site a new Civil Courthouse here, replacing and further expanding upon space it now occupies in the historic Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse.

The negotiated final purchase price paid to the Museum for the block is $21,750,000. The County expects to receive an appraisal from an outside independent appraiser valuing the block at around $21,250,000. The County agreed to pay slightly above that value based on the proximity of the land to the county’s downtown campus, the lack of Capitol View corridor issues and most importantly its unique value as the site of the original Civil Courthouse. UGL Equis Corporation, represented by Keith Zimmerman, was selected through a competitive process as the exclusive broker for Travis County’s downtown property acquisitions. Jeff Coddington and Bob Wynn, both partners at Oxford Commercial, represented AMOA in the transaction.

The block changing hands has historic significance. It was part of the original Republic of Texas grant of land for a jail and county courthouse in 1839, and the first Travis County Courthouse was built on that site in 1855. The block was in the original drawing of Austin’s downtown created by Waller and was listed as the “Courthouse and Jail Block”. Today, it is still referenced on plats and Travis Central Appraisal District documents as the “Old Courthouse Block of the Original City”.

Emphasizing the County will not once again put a jail on this site, County Judge Samuel T. Biscoe spoke to the significance of the land acquisition. “The justice system is one of the largest and most important responsibilities that the county has by law. We recommit to our founders’ original vision of a Courthouse on this site. But we also recommit to a modern civil and family courthouse for our citizens. The last renovation occurred in 1964 when the population was one quarter of the population today. The resulting undersized and outdated courthouse creates deplorable conditions and urgent space needs.”