Courting the Old Courthouse

Santa Fe County is looking for a company to oversee the construction of its new administrative offices at the site of the old county courthouse in downtown Santa Fe, and a deadline for application has been set for Jan. 12, with a pre-proposal conference to be held on Dec. 22.

The county has already received bids for its design and construction, and is in the process of reviewing them to determine who will get the job to build a 72,000-square foot complex and a two-story garage on Catron Street, where the courthouse has been vacant since June 2013.

But even then, the $25 million in planned renovations might take a bit of time, because the entire operation is supposed to be bonded against revenues generated by a series of hikes in the gross receipts tax levied by the county, the legality of which is now being tested in 1st Judicial District Court by the city of Española. The city of Santa Fe pulled out of the same lawsuit in July, but initially contested the tax as well.

Complicating the issue even further is that nobody seems to know whether the old county courthouse, which would be razed, is historically significant. David Rasch, in charge of the city's Preservation Division, says there is no historic status in the city's eyes, but Kristine Mihelcic, a spokeswoman for the county, says it's recognized as historic by the state.

The building was erected in 1939 as a school, then converted to a courthouse in the late 1970s. The county does not plan to go before the city's Historic District Review Board for permission to demolish the old county courthouse, Mihelcic says.

Officials also plan to renovate the current county administration building on Grant Avenue as part of the renovations.

An earlier version of this story erred in saying the city of Santa Fe was still testing the county tax in court, and in describing the current contract up for bid.

Santa Fe Reporter