County may take old federal building

The U.S. government may donate the federal building on Broadway to the Cape Girardeau County government, allowing county offices to relocate from the Common Pleas Courthouse and courthouse annex in a move that could boost security for the county's judicial offices, officials said Thursday.

Cape Girardeau County Commissioner Jay Purcell said the move would give the county more secure court offices. The city, in turn, might take over the Common Pleas Courthouse -- built in 1854 -- and turn it into a downtown museum, Purcell said.

Nothing has been finalized, he and federal officials said.

The federal General Services Administration, which owns the 37-year-old building at 339 Broadway, said it has no plans to keep the building once the new courthouse opens a few blocks away in late 2006 or early 2007.

Jim Ogden, GSA deputy regional administrator in Kansas City, said that once workers move into the new courthouse, there won't be enough other federal offices remaining to warrant his agency keeping the building, which opened in 1968.

Ogden said the building would be offered to other federal agencies first, but they most likely won't want to own it either.

"At that point, we would make the building available to state and local governments." he said. The offer also would extend to agencies that provide services to the homeless.

In Joplin, Mo., for example, a former federal courthouse is now home to a not-for-profit organization that operates a health clinic and provides other social services, Ogden said.

The goal, he said, is to allow the building to continue to serve a public use.

Ogden said the GSA has had informal discussions with both Cape Girardeau County and city officials over the future use of the Broadway federal building.

Purcell said the federal building has 31,000 square feet of office space. The county currently has 14,000 to 15,000 square feet of space in the Common Pleas Courthouse and the courthouse annex, formerly a city library, combined.

As a result, the county government would need only about half of the space in the federal building. County officials would hope to rent the rest of the space to existing federal tenants such as U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson's office, the FBI and Social Security.

"There is ample space in that building," Purcell said.

The federal building has two courtrooms including a large upstairs courtroom that could be divided into two courtrooms, he said. "It is all preliminary, but we are looking at every single option," Purcell said.

The federal building has one main entrance at the front of the building and a metal detector. Purcell said he expects the metal detector would remain in place if the county took over operation of the building.

County officials, he said, want more secure court offices to protect circuit judges and other court officials. "Obviously, we want the best security we possibly can," he said. That would the driving force to take over that building."

If the county moves out of the Common Pleas Courthouse, Cape Girardeau Mayor Jay Knudtson said the city could consider using the building for city offices but more likely as a local history museum and tourist attraction. The building, he said, is a local landmark.

The city owns the historic courthouse which the county uses and maintains. At one time, city offices were housed in the building.

As for the new courthouse on Independence Street, construction work continued Thursday as Emerson, wearing a hardhat, toured the massive, steel-framed building taking shape.

"This is an awesome, awesome building," Emerson said as she stood near a roundabout that will serve as an entrance to both the courthouse grounds and the Cape Girardeau City Hall parking lot just to the east of the site.

Exterior construction work and work on the lobby should be completed by December or January, said GSA project manager Dennis Miller. Work on finishing the interior spaces will be bid out this year with that work expected to start by early next year, he said.

The entire project is expected to cost about $50 million, he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123