Spartanburg courthouse to open next October. Here's how the project remained on time, budget.
The exterior of the new six-story Spartanburg County Courthouse should be finished by this fall and the completed building is on track to open by October 2023, the contractor's project manager told county officials Thursday.
"We are on schedule and on budget right now," said Jeff Miller, senior project manager with Turner Construction of Charlotte. "By the end of October, all the precast will be done on the building. Then by November, most of the main building outside should be complete."
On Thursday, Miller led county officials and county council members on a tour of the new $120 million county courthouse. Construction has reached the midway point. When finished, it will have 15 courtrooms, with room for additions. Miller said the the7th Circuit Solicitor's Office will occupy the fifth floor.
"A year ago on July 13, we were down there doing the groundbreaking," County Councilman David Britt said. "To see where we've come from last July to where we are now is remarkable."
The new 340,000-square-foot courthouse on North Daniel Morgan Avenue will be three times larger than the current courthouse that was built 65 years ago.
It is being paid for with revenues from a six-year, 1-cent sales tax voters approved in 2017, estimated to raise $217 million for a new courthouse, a city-county government complex, emergency operations center, city police station and two parking garages.
The five-story, $12.6 million courthouse parking garage on Library Street is already open, and has 647 spaces. The parking garage for the city-county government complex will have 500 to 600 spaces, officials said.
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Construction is expected to soon start at the site of the new $13.1 million municipal police facility at the northwest corner of St. John and Forest streets, across from Miracle Hill Rescue Mission. The project should take 18 months to complete.
When the new courthouse opens, the old one will be demolished and the county will turn its focus to building a new $52.3 million city-county government complex on West Broad Street, expected to be finished in 2025.
Miller said from January to October 2023, most of the work will focus on the interior of the courthouse, including the installation of 10 elevators. Next month, workers inside will begin installing drywall, plumbing, electrical wiring and sun-reflective windows, he said.
County Administrator Cole Alverson said the courthouse project is on schedule and within budget because materials like steel and building fixtures were purchased ahead of construction.
"Knowing that steel was going to be a shortage, it was pre-ordered in January 2021," Alverson said. "Every material was pre-ordered."
Building projects have been delayed due to supply shortages and skyrocketing costs of building materials. If the county had waited until the start of construction in July 2021, Britt said the cost of materials could have added $100 million to the project and caused delays of six months or more.
"It was genius of both Cole Alverson and Mike Emory (the county's facilities director) in conjunction with the Turner team," Britt said. "They did this well in advance of knowing of any supply issues. It proved to be prophetic."
Council members Jessica Coker and Bob Walker joined Britt on Thursday's tour that ended on the unfinished rooftop of the new courthouse, which offered panoramic views of Spartanburg.
"The citizens, we've got to remember," Walker said. "They're what we're doing this for."
Contact Bob Montgomery at bob.montgomery@shj.com. Please support our coverage of Spartanburg County with a digital subscription.
This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Spartanburg Co. courthouse to open next October, take a look inside
