Project Description

In 2007 the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors made a strategic decision to provide a critical service and deal with the county’s growing backlog of criminal cases in the courts.

That decision was to build a new courthouse in downtown Phoenix which would handle criminal cases.  At the time the decision was made more than 40,000 criminal cases were being filed annually in Maricopa County, and that number was expected to grow along with the population that will exceed four million.

The tower will be the county’s single largest project in history with a cost of about $340 million.

In order to complete the building without debt, the Board had to defer some other capital projects.  Among them:

1. $67 million     Regional Court Expansion in Mesa
2. $13 million     Sheriff’s 911 Center and Crime Lab
3. $6.3 million    Demolish First Avenue Jail
4. $79.1 million  Southwest Regional Court

By locating the new court building in the downtown complex it will be more efficient for the movement of prisoners from the Fourth Avenue Jail.  It will also be safer for the public as the inmates will be transferred using tunnels under the buildings.

Additionally, the new facility will allow for speedier trials, thereby cutting down higher jail costs caused by inmates needing housing, food and other care.

The plan is to construct the building to eventually hold 32 courtrooms, but will house 22 at the beginning.  It is much more cost efficient to construct the building this way, leaving some of the floors as shells, so the additional ten courtrooms can be added later.

This courthouse has some unique design items which make it much more efficient and more user friendly for the public.  These include putting judges’ chambers on separate floors to allow for better use of courtrooms for visiting judges and other special circumstances. Additionally, there will be a cafeteria inside the courthouse so jurors don’t have to leave and return through security, information desks, and clearly marked seating areas, allowing victims, defendants and witnesses to remain separate.