[LAMetroGuy]

County may refit L.B. courthouse

Up to $20M may be spent on aging facility; plans for new structure held up.

By Wendy Thomas Russell
Staff writer

LONG BEACH — One local attorney called it putting "lipstick on a pig."
Yet Los Angeles County officials appear to be moving forward on a $12 million to $20million seismic retrofit of Long Beach's antiquated, overcrowded courthouse on Ocean Boulevard and Magnolia Avenue.

The county-funded retrofit will take a few years to complete, and discussion of the project has already raised concerns about asbestos exposure and other construction-related nuisances among courthouse personnel. What's more, court officials argue, the project would not add courtrooms or address the 1958 building's general deterioration.

The county may have little choice.

A proposal for a new, $126million Long Beach Courthouse at Broadway and Magnolia Avenue envisioned as a public-private venture has enthusiastic local support. But its success rides on whether the state Judicial Council of California sets a date to take over the courthouse, as mandated by law. If the state cannot guarantee a lease for the proposed courthouse, the county could not consider a land deal.

"Obviously, a new courthouse would be a win-win for everyone," County Supervisor Don Knabe, whose 4th District includes Long Beach, said, "but, you know, we can't sign on the dotted line without some guarantee that the state is going to pay for it."

The state budget crisis has compounded the problem, slowing the pace of the courthouse takeovers. There are a plethora of needy courthouses throughout the state, said Judicial Council spokeswoman Lynn Holton. And so far, she said, Long Beach Superior Court the seventh-largest court in the state is nowhere near the top of the list.

It's unclear when the state would take over the building, she said, leaving the court's future in limbo.

"It's a very large project," said Long Beach Superior Court Presiding Judge Bradford Andrews, a proponent of the a new courthouse. "It's a very big commitment for the county, and, of course, everyone is in the position right now where we don't have any money."

Three developers have offered to build a new courthouse at no cost to the county in exchange for the land where the current building sits at 415 W. Ocean Blvd. That land, across the street from the new Camden at Harbor View apartments, is considered prime downtown real estate by developers.

The proposal has involved Kam Babaoff, managing director of Ensemble Investments, who agreed to erect a building with at least 32 courtrooms. The current courthouse has 25, which is considered inadequate by court officials.

Babaoff also agreed to raze the court parking structure at Broadway and Magnolia, and to build a new structure that could also accommodate employees and visitors to the nearby Long Beach Federal Building, which has no designated parking.

As proposed, the developers would then lease the new courthouse to the county at about $4 million a year, with an option to buy, Andrews has said.

"We are hoping that they will design this as a demonstration project, a demonstration of public-private financing," he said.

Meanwhile, the retrofit may be just months away. County engineers have said the building is far from earthquake-safe and an ever-widening gap between the old and new wings of the courthouse necessitates reconstruction as quickly as possible.

"I can't sit here and ignore the county engineers' issues," Knabe said. "We're proceeding down that line because we don't know when (the state will take over) whether it's going to be a year from now or 20 years from now. We have to protect people."

— Staff writer David Rogers contributed to this report.